How does planning intensify surveillance?

Despite promoting variations on the theme of the “good city” as development visions, many city governments in practice tend to prioritise the planning requirements imperatives of ‘safety’, ‘security’ and financial efficiency over broader social needs. This narrow understanding of planning's purpose has led to the creation of complex infrastructures of security and control. How does the digital turn in planning – from the digitalisation of records to the digitalisation of space layout, to the digitalisation of resource flows within and across cities – impact such processes? What are the implications on privacy and data protection – especially for stigmatised populations? Are we seeing a merging of planning and surveillance? And what room for manoeuvre remains for ‘progressive planners’ seeking to actualise the good city with or against digitalisation? 

The event will be chaired by: Professor Colin Marx  

Photo By Tomas van Houtryve

Speakers:  

Ayona Datta is Professor in Human Geography in University College London. She has expertise in undertaking theoretically informed, empirically rich research with cross cutting expertise in postcolonial urbanism, smart cities, urban futures, and gender citizenship. She was awarded the Busk Medal from the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) in 2019 for her contributions to the understanding of smart cities through fieldwork. 

Jun Zhang is a Lecturer at the University of Sheffield’s School of Information, Journalism and Communication and an associate member of Unity Lab (Edinburgh) and the Sheffield Urban Institute. His research explores how smart cities, AI, and neuro-technical infrastructures reshape governance and citizenship in China, drawing on Foucauldian concepts of power and governmentality. Jun’s work appears in leading journals such as Government Information Quarterly, Urban Studies, and Urban Geography, and he contributes to global policy dialogues on equitable digital futures.  alexander.macfarlane@ucl.ac.uk

Oren Yiftachel is an (emeritus) professor of urban studies and planning, political and legal geography, at BGU, Beersheba, and a prof. (hon) of geography and planning at UCL, London. In a wide range of publications his work has focused on critical understandings of the relations between space, power, inequality and conflict. He uses international comparative research, theoretical development and a focus on Israel/Palestine. Yiftachel is also a social and political activist who is member of several organizations working for social justice, equality and peace, mainly with indigenous and marginalized groups.