Towards a Political Economy of Urban Communication Technologies

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dc.contributor.advisorWasko, Janet
dc.contributor.authorOstrove, Geoffrey
dc.date.accessioned2016-10-27T18:49:34Z
dc.date.available2016-10-27T18:49:34Z
dc.date.issued2016-10-27
dc.description.abstractBy the year 2050, about three quarters of the world’s population will live in cities. Most cities are developed by state or federal governments; however, some cities are developed for the purpose of private interests that plan the city. While the concept of private companies planning and sometimes even owning cities is not a new development, there seems to currently be a rise in this trend, with communication corporations such as IBM, Google, Intel, and Cisco now taking advantage of this growing market. Known as “smart” or “wired” cities, this new privatized way of planning communities allows major communication corporations to play an important role in shaping the future of our communities. Google, IBM, and Intel are all playing a role in planning the future of Portland, Oregon. By analyzing documents such as planning ordinances, financial reports, and government transcripts, as well as conducting interviews with city planners and corporate employees, this study found that many of the “smart” city efforts being undertaken by these communication corporations are intimately tied to their efforts to bring the Internet of Things (IoT) to fruition. Ultimately, the main goal of these efforts is to utilize urban communication technologies (UCTs) to gather data about community members by tracking their activities. In this emerging personal data economy, identities are the main commodity being fetishized.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1794/20514
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.publisherUniversity of Oregon
dc.rightsCreative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0-US
dc.subjectCommoditiesen_US
dc.subjectFetishismen_US
dc.subjectIdentityen_US
dc.subjectPolitical economyen_US
dc.subjectSmart citiesen_US
dc.subjectStandarizationen_US
dc.titleTowards a Political Economy of Urban Communication Technologies
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
thesis.degree.disciplineSchool of Journalism and Communication
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Oregon
thesis.degree.leveldoctoral
thesis.degree.namePh.D.

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