数之城:传播政治经济学视域下的技术与城市

City of Digits:Technology and City in the Lens of Political Economy of Communication

基于无处不在的移动连接,城市正在成为一个拓展的空间网络。数字平台通过定位功能提供各项城市服务的同时,却变相成为物理空间的“承租人”,将整个城市都纳入难以察觉的“在线生产”中。研究认为,曾经的数字化是城市的数字化,而在当下和未来,数字化则反过来变成重组城市的主导因素,即数字的城市化。随着既有技术对城市的依附关系的重构,一种新的城市类型和一套新的城市经验正在形成,进入到了“数之城”的新阶段。这一阶段的本质是平台资本对城市的再造。

Based on ubiquitous mobile connectivity,cities are becoming an expanding spatial network.When we use city's services with platforms which have geolocation capabilities,the platforms become a tenant of physical space,bringing the entire city into an imperceptible'online production'.If the power of digital technology of the past has allowed cities to move into the digital virtual world,the power of today and tomorrow,is moving cities from setting scenes on digital platforms to the real physical layouts.With such a subversion of subordination and dependency,a new type of urban and new sets of urban experiences are emerging.Therefore,this research will take it as a starting point and try to propose a new stage of'city of digits',which aims to examine a new reality of technological encirclement and the consequent reorganization of cities,along with the corresponding transformation of communication relationships and structures.From the perspective of Political Economy of Communication,this stage,in essence,is a process that'platform capitalism'is reinventing the cities.