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Algorithms Are the New Highway: on Algorithmic Contribution to the Parochialization of Public Space

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Algorithms Are the New Highway: on Algorithmic Contribution to the Parochialization of Public Space Algorithms are the new highway: On algorithmic contribution to the parochialization of public space Master’s Thesis Media Studies: New Media and Digital Cultures Amsterdam, The Netherlands July 10, 2015 Evelien Christiaanse Supervisor: Marc Tuters Second Reader: Jan Simons For Bob Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 7 Chapter 1 .................................................................................................................................................... 7 Establishing Space ..................................................................................................................................... 7 Part One: Parochialization of public spaces ........................................................................................... 7 Jane Jacobs ................................................................................................................................................. 8 Critique ....................................................................................................................................................... 8 Part two: Fluidity ................................................................................................................................... 9 Realms ........................................................................................................................................................ 9 Space and Place .......................................................................................................................................... 9 Critical Cartography ................................................................................................................................. 10 Non-Western Cartography ....................................................................................................................... 10 Chapter 2 .................................................................................................................................................. 11 Software Studies ....................................................................................................................................... 11 Part One: Building blocks of algorithms .............................................................................................. 12 Captured Data .......................................................................................................................................... 12 Ubiquity and Opacity ............................................................................................................................... 13 Part Two: Algorithmic Governance ...................................................................................................... 14 Paradigm shift .......................................................................................................................................... 14 Discipline Society .................................................................................................................................... 14 Control Society ....................................................................................................................................... 15 Automated management ........................................................................................................................... 16 Critiquing Automation ............................................................................................................................. 16 .................................................................................................................................................................. 19 Chapter 3 .................................................................................................................................................. 19 Democratization of Public Space ............................................................................................................. 19 Part one: The Tension between Software and Space ............................................................................ 19 Part two: Opportunities ........................................................................................................................ 21 Cathedral and Bazaar .............................................................................................................................. 22 Democratization ....................................................................................................................................... 22 Rethinking algorithms .............................................................................................................................. 23 Physical design ......................................................................................................................................... 24 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................... 25 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................. 26 I give the University of Amsterdam library permission to archive the digital thesis in a repository and publicise and make it available for consultation upon request. 6 Introduction Highways are people movers. They are convenient as they bring the driver to their destination quickly, without wasting time driving through all the small city streets. Yet, Jane Jacobs, urban activist living in New York City, was opposed to building highways through neighborhoods. To Jacobs, cars disturb the city and highways reflect priority of planning over people. In the 1950's and 1960's Robert Moses worked as an urban planner (some called him the “Master Builder”) in New York City. He and Jacobs had a famous clash over plans to build a Lower Manhattan Expressway which would have displaced 2,000 families and 800 businesses and over a road that would cut through a park (Chatelain). The infra- structure needed to support cars destroys the pedestrian’s experience of the city. "Downtown's and other neighborhoods that are marvels of close-grained intricacy and compact mutual support are casually dis- emboweled...city character is blurred until every place becomes more like every other place," (Jacobs 440). This close-grained intricacy that she refers to is the diverse and lively city street which she ideal- ized. Her concern is that the roads break up the city into a loose collection of places and eliminates uniqueness of those places. Imagine that, like breaking up neighborhoods, algorithms increasingly drive like-minded people to- wards each other. This effectively eliminates public spaces, which are open to everyone, if certain peo- ple no longer have access to them. Based on one's personal profile of data that is built up about them online, individuals are increasingly being presented with personalized suggestions or results. This means that they are more likely to come in contact with like-minded people with similar interests to form what is called a parochial realm. Algorithms are convenient as they bring the searcher their infor- mation quickly, without having to waste time digging for information on useless websites. Algorithms are the new highways. Algorithms are increasingly used by taking over menial tasks like planning a route to drive. So much that there is a move towards ubiquitous computing, which is “when we were no longer aware of [com- puting] presence. Computers would be so thoroughly enmeshed in our lives that they’d be invisible to us" (Carr). At the same time, the United Nations estimates that 60 percent of the world’s population will live in cities by 2030. This will be the first time that more people live in a city than outside. De Waal explores the field of digital media and society and thinks that the combination of ubiquitous com- puting and growth of cities changes the city as a society. He thereby problematizes the change of public spaces into parochial spaces (de Waal 8). I would like to explore this further using the questions: How 7 might algorithms contribute to the parochialization of public space? What are some opportunities to mitigate this change? The change from public into parochial spaces is neither good nor bad. It simply happens. Yet, this de- velopment does affect the way that urbanites engage with the city. In the first chapter, I will discuss the role of public spaces and how they 'parochialize'. Then, I will discuss elements of Jacobs’ ideal city. Af- ter this, I will explore theoretical concepts of space over time. The purpose of this will be to demon- strate how space has been constructed over time and across cultures. The second chapter departs from urban geography to move on to software studies. Here I discuss how algorithms work and how they gain the agency to influence urbanites. Examples of how algorithms achieve this are included through- out the second chapter. The digital media that I take into consideration in this thesis are software and algorithms which produce recommendations or offer search results because it is these softwares that I think have the potential for aiding parochialization. Finally, the third chapter discusses the tension be- tween urban geography and software. It concludes with some opportunities for mitigating parochializa-
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