This editorial introduces a Special Issue on Big Data in the City. Collectively, six research articles and two commentaries explore the roles that Big Data can and might play in enhancing our understanding of urban processes and the qualities of urban outcomes. Big Data may be intrinsically considered a neutral technology but – refracted through existing power structures and resource distributions – its application within cities is by no means guaranteed always to help in the amelioration of social injustices or in the promotion of urban well-being. In application, Big Data becomes a performative technology that can be, is and will be further used in the creation and regulation of the cities of this century, a process that will be messy and of mixed consequence. The task for urban studies research is to shape that performativity, and to challenge any tendency that emerges to the further entrenchment of social inequities. In pursuit of these aims, and sensitively deployed, Big Data can be cast as part of the route map to better urban futures.

这篇社论介绍了城市大数据的特刊。六篇研究文章和两篇评论共同探讨了大数据在增强我们对城市进程和城市成果质量的理解方面可以并可能发挥的作用。大数据本质上可能被认为是一种中性技术，但是——通过现有的权力结构和资源分配折射——它在城市中的应用绝不能保证总是有助于改善社会不公正或促进城市福祉。在应用中，大数据成为一种表演技术，可以、现在和将进一步用于本世纪城市的创建和监管，这个过程将是混乱和复杂的。城市研究的任务是塑造这种表演性，并挑战任何进一步巩固社会不平等的趋势。为了实现这些目标，并进行敏感部署，大数据可以作为通往更美好城市未来的路线图的一部分。