Okay. I want to jump right into it by setting the scene as the hiss of the street sweepers soling sled through residential streets on Chicago's West side. Kimberly Brown thought little of it at the time. It was May 2,020, COVID-19 lurked patiently around many corners. Governor J. B. Pritzkrid just issued a stay at home order, and Mayor Lorry Lightfoot has spent a parking tickets that were unrelated to public safety.
Upon returning to her car, Miss Brown.
upon returning to her car, Miss Brown saw an orange piece of paper that could ruin anyone's day. It was Chicago's unofficial greeting card. Her car was, out of compliance, allegedly parked in a restricted area during scheduled street cleaning.
Now the department of streets and sanitation would later issue a statement saying that parking tickets like these were written in error, although this misunderstanding would be resolved with refunds or avoided tickets, the situation shines light on a long-standing issue in Chicago, that is, motorists are routinely issued parking tickets under false pretenses every year.
and with this in mind we use Chicago as a case study to interrogate how the study of monetary sanctions and crime more generally might look different if researchers suspended the take it for granted assumption that policing follows the letter of the law.
Now there is plenty of reason to cross, examine official crime data as suspect those who are deputized with police power, routinely withhold evidence, provide false accounts, and perjury themselves under oath, especially in Chicago.
within the world of parking tickets. Those who issue these citations exercise tremendous law making authority as street level bureaucrats, that is, they decide if compliance laws are broken under which conditions and when
yet we might expect this discretion to vary in pattern ways along a host of different contingencies, like the Ethno racial composition of a neighborhood. Whether a ticket was issued by a patrol officer versus a parking enforcement officer or certain features of the built environment.
A focus on parking tickets, answers recent calls for research to uncover how authorities outside of criminal courts participate in monetary sanctions and abroads the focus to administrative courts that implicate far more people than does the criminal side of law which tends to preoccupy the work of scholars who study fines and fees.
whereas the Cook County State's attorney's office refers to just under 500,000 cases for criminal prosecution each year, for example, the city of Chicago annually issues about 3 million parking tickets within a jurisdiction less than half the county seats population.
Furthermore, the number of parking tickets is more than 20 times the order of yearly traffic stops that are documented by the Chicago police department. Why is this number important to emphasize? Well, it's important to emphasize, because many respected scholars across the social sciences have described. Traffic stops as being the epicenter of police encounters.
So in bringing up these numbers. What I wish to do is center the topic of parking tickets to recalibrate the center of gravity for inquiries on monetary sanction and capture a much more modal, if not more mundane, experience of among the population.
Now let me speak to the issue of why Chicago.
Chicago is a place that has long-led policy change later adopted across the world in terms of monetizing its street networks and expanding regulatory enforcement, and in large part these patterns were amplified under former Mayor, Richard M. Daley.
In a 92 meeting with Chicago City Council, Daley made his agenda plane by saying, there's a limit to what we can ask of local taxpayers, and that's why we're putting even more muscle into the collection of fins and fees next year. And this is when you see an explosion of ticket revenue in Chicago.
So when we track all the revenues that the city collects from fines and fees, since this data show that these sanctions have grown by more than 300% since when daily first took office. And that's holding inflation constant
as much as 321 million dollars was generated from fes and fees alone in 2,017. And to give this figure some context, that's about 4% of total revenues that are collected by the city. It's about 40 more 1 million dollars in what the city collects from its local sales tax, and it's 321 million dollars more than what Chicago collects from a city income tax, a corporate tax or a business head tax.
as Chicago actually doesn't collect any of these forms of revenue.
Now don't let me give you these number. Don't let these numbers give you the impression that Chicago is profiting hand over fist whenever it comes to fines and fees, because I actually don't think that's the case, because so much of this money cycles right back into the system for its own maintenance. And you can't talk about the maintenance of Chicago's taking regime without also talking about Ibm.
Chicago partnered with Ibm in 1,998 to provide a centralized real-time recordskeeping system. Tickets would no longer be strictly handwritten, but issued with handheld computers. These computers would provide access to a data processing system that can match the make and model of a car with different plate numbers, and they were equipped with cameras to capture photo evidence.
And I should mention that when Ibm landed the Chicago contract, the company made a promise to reduce the number of bogus tickets that were issued by the city tickets, just like those that were wrongfully issued to Kimberly Brown.
So, keeping these developments in mind, this project looks at ticket data that spends the current contract between Chicago and Ibm. It looks at citation practices that cover a 6 year span from August first, 2,012. The start date of the current contract to May eighteenth, 2,018. The most current data that I have.
and the study identifies 7 different types of violations that are listed here on this slide that specify circumstantial conditions of compliance, and that circumstantial part is really important. When you consider that city government maintains much data that speak to these very circumstances well through some detective work, you can actually recreate the proverbial scene of the crime, so to verify if a snow route ticket was issued when there was actual snowfall accumulation. For example, we cross reference records from the Department of Streets and Sanitation. That document when snow plows were operated
to verify. If a snow route ticket. I'm sorry for for violations of restricted residential parking. We triangulated these tickets against zoning information that was maintained by the city city city clerk's office, and when we looked at whether tickets were issued in zones restricted for special events, we turned to permits that were maintained by the Department of Transportation.
so I could go on with this list of examples. But I think you get the logic behind our method.
So when you add up all of the errors of the 3.6 million tickets that we reviewed, what do we find? We found that approximately 475,000 of these tickets can be invalidated as being issued under false pretenses, that is, they should have never been issued in the first place. So what this means is, you don't have just one Kimberly Brown in Chicago. You actually have many Kimberly Browns in Chicago.
So where were all these tickets issued
when we started this project? We thought that these tickets would mirror what many journalists in Chicago refer to as quote unquote the map where sad and unjust things happen at much higher rates in poor black and brown neighborhoods located on the west and south sides of the city.
So whether you're talking about a Chicago map of vacant housing rates as highlighted here, or lead poisoning exposure for children under 2 years old is highlighted here, or life expectancy rates as highlighted. Here the patterns remain the same, regardless of the measure of inequality, and in all these maps the darker the shade of blue, the more intense the hardship, and these darker shades of blue are invariably communities comprised by predominantly black or Latinx residents.
So for our ticketing project, we thought that any errors that we would find would mirror the racial geography that you see here in these maps.
And these expectations were further informed by a vast literature that's critical of broken windows, policing as a means of uneven surveillance, the kind that singles out black and brown community specifically. But even after controlling for a a host of other ticket level officer level and neighborhood level explanations in a series of multi level regression models, including measures like differences in socioeconomic characteristics.
features of the built environment, time-sensitive variations in so-called bad apple or high disparity policing officers. What we found was a map that actually inverts Chicago's geography of inequality
error tickets are more likely to be issued in white spaces, as you can see on the map here, alongside the scatters that show the by variant relationship between the rate of Eric tickets and a community's racial profile.
So what became more obvious to us during the course of this project
is that parking violations are not in the same moral universe as the street crimes that dominate the literature that originally formed our expectations, which tend to preoccupy themselves with crimes like panhandling drug possession, public intoxication, and muggings.
And these different moral universes become clear when you consider how the 2 sets of crimes are differentially punished. Right cash is the currency that atones for a parking violation, not prison or some other harsh punishment, and this blurs the line between what constitutes a reprimand on the one hand, and then what constitutes a price? Premium or a license. On the other hand.
so the ticket it can evade courtroom ceremony with an online payment or check by mail so long as fines are paid or appealed. Non compliance is not an indictable offense, and violations can be repeated indefinitely without any type of further recourse, and all these things speak to how parking tickets are more of a regulatory affair than a moral affair where violations are distanced from racialized threats to safety that are deemed as reprehensible.
So we want to suggest that these regulatory features open up policing possibilities beyond the usual suspects of crime control.
And what we're saying here is that tickets and air represent a case in the democratization and the dispersal of discipline. And what we're doing is returning to some key themes that were introduced during the 1970 S. By British sociologist, Stanley Cohen, and what he theorized as the punitive city.
So who's more prone to committing these errors? Is it parking enforcement officers who answer to the Department of Finance, or as a patrol officers who answer to the Chicago police department.
These are the 2 main players who are authorized to write tickets in the city of Chicago, and there is 2 reasons why we should suspect patrol officers are more prone to erroneous tickets compared to their administrative peers.
Not only is ticketing disparage as menial work among rank and file police, whereas it defines the whole. vocation for parking Enforcement officers, but patrol officers enjoy what James Baldwin referred to as an arrogant autonomy that allows them to operate above and beyond legal restraint.
So what we want to suggest is that such low valuation of the work alongside a general lack of accountability can actually have negative consequences. For on the job performance among patrol officers.
and when we test this hypothesis in a multivariate framework, it empirically holds up. Patrol officers are 52% more likely than parking Enforcement officers to issue a ticket in error.
But that's not the whole picture. One exceptional pattern that we identified in our data regards a crossover interaction that's at play. When you consider the relationship between a neighborhoods Latinx representation, and whether a ticket was issued by a parking Enforcement officers, not patrol officers.
So what you're saying in this slide here is an iconic mural that's titled the Declaration of Immigration, that's located in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago, a space known for welcoming people of Mexican origin
and let me contextualize this mural further by pointing out that much of Chicago, some 200,000 undocumented residents reside in just a handful of predominantly Latinx communities. And what makes air tickets in these spaces, all the more pernicious is that drivers in these Latinx communities are actually among the least likely to contest these arid tickets.
The 5 communities with the largest undocumented populations, are the same communities with the lowest rates of a pill. Only 3% of all era tickets issued in these spaces are ever challenged.
and these kinds of ticketing practices align with developing theories of predation within the study of monetary sanctions. Where you see this style of pocketbook policing target. Those who are seen as non-constituates of the demos right.
which makes their money. they, the non-constituates of the demos, are basically have little to no political recourse, and this makes their money all the more right for the taking by parking enforcement officers whose main purpose is to maximize revenue.
So what are the stakes of the findings that I just showed you? We haven't talked much about the consequences of these error tickets, but it's a worthwhile discussion to have, because it speaks to the duality of discipline that comes with them, where the consequences can be more regulatory for some, but punitive for others in ways that sort out along racial lines. So when you don't pay or can test your ticket in 2 weeks in Chicago, the amount of money that you end up owing doubles, and then another 22% in collection fees can be stacked on top of this figure.
So our data show that more than one in 5 air tickets are subject to these late penalties with a lopsided share following on those who are ticketed majority black neighborhoods, and to a lesser extent, majority Latinx neighborhoods.
But it's not just that late penalty single out black communities. It's bankruptcy, too. although mounting debt from wrongfully issue tickets rarely results in bankruptcy. We located 2,313 tickets that were tied to a subsequent bankruptcy filing, and that averages to about one erroneous ticket turned bankruptcy every day, and even one of these is too many.
So all together. What our findings reveal is that ticketing under false pretenses is a multi-million dollar industry for the city of Chicago. as much as 35.6 million dollars is tied to error tickets for the 7 ordinances that we reviewed over a 6 year span, and the money tied to these tickets issued. An era is enough money to pay for about a third of what Chicago owes Ibm every year for bogus tickets that its tech was supposed to eliminate. In the first place.
And this brings me to some concluding thoughts I want to share.
So our study returns to the fundamental category of crime to trouble what it marks. And in making this case we want to suggest that unquestioned ticket data and crime data generally are more than just some index that makes a disorder legible to the State.
It's actually through their ritualized application. Where, taking for granted crime. Numbers represent the currency, the data currency upon which economies of knowledge are built in the social sciences, that these data are actually valorized as an operative frame where police power is put on public display.
And in making this connection this project returns to a call for the development of abolitionist methodologies recently issued by Michelle Brown and Judas Shep. They argue that since omissions and knowledge are always performative enactments of structures of power, well, then, a lingering question for those who care about social justice regards how to develop an epistemology that's actually dislodged from a punisher's perspective. So how do we not see, like the state.
How do we not see like a cop? Or how do we not see like a ticketer? And to these ends our methods strategy offers one way forward.
Thank you. Wow. I've got about 17 questions there, which I'm all going to save till the discussion part. If I get there at this point. Are there any questions of clarification?
No, we're good. Okay. I'm just going to check the chat. If I press on that, would it show
you're keeping an eye on the chat to me, super, in which case, Joe, I'm going to ask you to come up
and I'm going to. You're gonna
do you think?
Just gonna get rid of this. Okay? Sure should have done in the previous one. All right.
Yeah.
Okay, just going to check that. I can move the slides. Okay, great.
all right. well, good morning, everyone. My name is Josephine, but please feel free to call me Joe. I'm a second-year Ph. D. Student at Cambridge and it's, you know, truly delight to be here today, and it's nice to see the the room kind of filled on a Saturday morning.
So what I'm presenting here is part of my Phd research. I'm hoping to kind of expand this paper into a chapter for my dissertation.
and my research is is it's about sing for a smart city project which is known locally as the Smart Nation Initiative. And this national sub challenge is one project that comes under it.
So some scaffolding for this presentation, this work draws on the literature from sociology, science, and technology studies and geography. I'm really broadly interested in the development of smart cities and the literature around, especially the idea of provincializing this mat city. and this analyzes how smart urbanism projects, while quite familiar across different locations, are tied to and ultimately generated by
national and local politics and places. And so it focuses on contextualizing and situating the social practices of smart urbanism and its implementation. To understand, you know what exactly the actually existing smart city is, and what the corresponding figure of the actually existing smart citizen is
I'm also interested in how governments have been using apps and wearables and gamification to kind of nudge and discipline the population into engaging with certain programs and also in displaying certain forms of virtuous behavior. And finally, I'm trying to understand all of this in the context of you know? What does
everyday kind of agency in the smart city look like? What that's negotiation with all of these programs look like and what ultimately can we think about. And how do we think about resistance? given the dominance of of conceptualizations about Smart City as kind of all encompassing on the city? And so what I'm interested in is looking at interruptions and
break downs and glitches in computational cities. The idea that smart cities have to script for certain behaviors, but ultimately they have to accommodate, for you know different ways and modes of being in the city that do not follow these bounded scripts of behaviors. And that's my focus today on gamification.
So then, my question for today is, what can the everyday practices of gaming gamification tell us about the role and figure of the actually existing smart citizen in Singapore.
So this presentation draws on some of my field work at Singapore. I'm using mostly mostly ethnographic methods, participant observation and interviews, as well as looking at how the National Steps challenge has been constructed, kind of online and discussed on Facebook groups and and Onreddit.
So
what is the national steps? Challenge so? For clarification over the course of the presentation I will be referring to the national steps, challenges either that or the challenge or the Nsc.
the challenge is a public health intervention that was launched in 2,015. So it's been about 8 years now by Singapore's health Promotion board
and at its most basic level. Really, it's a health initiative that's meant to incentivize people to take up more physical activity. So participants are given the option of collecting a free tracker or they can use theirphones, native health apps, or they can also use their own fitness. Trackers like fitbits and garments to track their activities and step counts. And then they sync this data with the helper. Motion bots associated a mobile app.
So since it's launched, the trackers have come to actually expand in what they are tracking. They track things like heart rate as well as blood oxygen levels and sleep as well.
So this is kind of how the challenge works. Participants track their activities. Since 2,015. This is mostly referred to steps plus the National steps challenge. Although more recently, the Health and Motion Board has included the ability for participants to track other activities as well. So they clock in periods of moderate to vigorous physical activity. That's Mvpa. If you can see the yellow kind of icon under the the arc
and
most recently, in the past month or so they've expanded and revamped the challenge again to include, sleep, tracking and tracking what you're eating. So food.
So over time. The you get some health points every time you track your steps and your moderate to vigorous activity, but not sleep. or calories and over over time. These half points they accumulate, and you can then change these health points for a certain amount of credits. So 150 health points, equates to about a dollar, and participants can then choose to donate their money to charities, or they can convert their points into transport credits that can be used on the public transport system.
or they can choose to receive digital cash vouchers that can be used at selected F and B outlets, or at grocery stores which are across the island.
So I think it's it's pretty obvious, you know, from the discussion and and the presentation, and my description that the health emotion bought. They've really been quite a debt. They've been adapting the challenge and drawing on behavioral economics. And you know, the appeal of wearables to nudge the population into self-monitoring, into being active, and by their logic into feeling good from within.
and and so healthy right. And this brings me to kind of the gist of today's presentation, which is how people find ways to earn points without engaging with this logic, that they have to walk in order to feel good or walk in order to get get these, get these
get these points, and ultimately have a healthy lifestyle.
So some people so there are a few ways that people have been have been getting points, perhaps most intuitively and unsurprisingly. Some most people well, not most, but some people have been shaking their trackers, and and this shaking is really done manually. Some of them do just remove it from their wrists, and then they'll shake it.
I've heard instances of people shaking them on public transport, in line, at Banks, or even just at home on the couch, like when they're watching Netflix. Some of this shaking is also done automatically. So here is an example of an automated shaker that's being sold online. And I'm not sure it's a bit small. But you can. It's it's being like marketed directly to people.
who are on the national steps, challenge along with other challenges that we've seen that involve this walking component like working on. Go
And here are some reviews that people have left about. about the Shaker as well, and I'm not sure how clear it is! But on on the left, like there are 3 national steps, challenge watches that have been attached to the Shaker, and then people will share in census of you know how to how to attach your watch to the Shaker to make sure that it actually gets the the counts in.
And they're like, yeah, trying to help each other out. Basically in the comments.
So not walking with the challenge also involves some other activities. So in some cases, you know, one person in the family actually ends up generating data for the rest of the family. So someone would walk, you know. Sometimes they would walk the balance of the 10,000 steps. If if you know, one member of the family didn't reach that for the day, or sometimes they would carry out multiple watches on their runs to hit the 10,000 step target.
And then, finally, some people would just find other ways to make the challenge work for them. Right? Because you know, the technological phones of the app and the watch ultimately don't fit into their fitness routines. So, for example, one of the people that I talked to would talk about how her father actually prefers spinning compared to running. But But the watch is on your wrist, and so what he does is to shake his kind of arms as he's on his spin cycle to the momentum of the spin.
so notably, how much time. Do I have 8Â min? okay, well, I'll make this fast. Not to be. There are other ways of it
gaining points from the national sex challenge that involve other ways of of gaming it. There is another challenge that is linked to the app as well. And what happens here is that you. You buy specifically. label healthier choice items from grocery stores and from fu cards, and then they give. They print out these receipts, and then you can scan the receipts to get points. And what people have done here is that they've they've walked to ask food store owners like, can you please give me, you know.
receipts that people haven't picking up, or at grocery stores at self check out kios. They would just walk along the checkout cost to pick up whatever QR code they find.
So you know, what? What can we learn right about these everyday practices of gamification?
so yeah. So I have some preliminary thoughts. which are still kind of ongoing. But maybe I'd like to draw some some themes and thoughts that might be of interest to today's presentation. And today's discussion.
and the first is that you know in St. Where we can tell quite obviously that the figure of the smart citizen is one that is very actively crafted by normalized by the State right already this is somewhat different from from other instances of smart cities that we see in that focus on. You know the role of private corporations that that come in and create a smart city, and and the kinds of problems that are associated with that in terms of creating boundaries around public data that then get privatized
for private gain. And in Singapore it's not necessarily, you know, public private corporations that draw people into this notification and the quantification of their activities. But it is the State itself. But in conjunction with private
corporations. So the past 8 years of the national steps challenge. You know, it's really increasingly normalized. The idea and the expectation that wearable devices and and apps aid in one's health and overall well-being. But also, I think it's not ready to say that in addition to the national steps challenge the Health promotion board the same body that has created this challenge.
They have 2 other programs that are going on. The first is a health study where in order to get data from members of the population, they've distributed fit bits out to to people. And the second ongoing program is a parallel program that works in conjunction with the National Steps program. But this came out of an agreement between the Health and motion ball and apple itself. And this is specifically for people who want to use apple watches
and the action. So so the actually existing smart citizen in Singapore is one who is, you know, actively engaging with and in constant conversation with these scripts, that the State continuous D crafts. And it's not just, you know, scripts about health and well-being and the ideal fit citizen. But in Singapore's case it's also expectations about digitally and technologically and able living, and the integration of these devices and technologies into everyone's everyday life.
And now this, the State State State is also kind of actively using gamification, right monetary incentives here to promote such specific healthy practices, such as walking and moderate to intense activities. and it's really mean leaning on the narrative of winning points right? And the element of fun and financial incentives, albeit quite small ones, right to turn citizens into gamers and really maybe less gamers. But ultimately it is data produces
So in the case of the national steps, challenge data that's collected from the program can actually be used. And I'm quoting here from the privacy policy to device organize and implement more programs related to the promotion of good health and healthy lifestyles amongst the people of Singapore. So participants are actively, you know, generating data that gets used in some way, shape or form to create these new health solutions that then get implemented to the population.
But perhaps this isn't all there is to the figure of the smart citizen. Right? Because processes like these from the quote right? They're not straightforward, and people are not so malleable and predictable, as I've kind of tried to show in my examples.
even in the context of Singapore's political context or self authoritarianism.
And and you know, as as vanilla writes, there are many ways of experiencing the same piece of gamified software, and indeed, we can tell right that people are just not buying into the State's project to produce the healthy and fit bodies.
and so what I'm trying to think about here right now is is how to think about these practices in light of more dominant narratives of the effects of smart cities being
all encompassing. So so much of the literature on smart cities and citizens, discusses kind of the disempowerment of citizens, you know, of turning civic participants into these more transactional figures in the city, or the idea of citizens who are steered and controlled and nudged act in certain ways. which I'm not at all disagreeing with. I think, like this. This program really shows how this is happening in the city.
But I think ultimately this is just part of the story of what it is to be an actually existing smart citizen.
and I think if we want to understand, you know the smart city and and the smart citizen, we have to understand and engage with these emerging modes of agency and resistance. and to understand then, the figure of the actually existing smart citizen and the role that they play in this smart city as and as a figure that is, both one who is nudged, and one and one whose actions just
sometimes or often do not compute with these scripts in the smart city, and ultimately, I think, it is true, engaging with these everyday acts of kind of non-conformity, and these interruptions and these bricks in the logic of this mat city that it becomes possible to understand and then theorize. You know the figure of the the smart citizen and the smart city as one that is very fluid and contentious, and open to more possibilities for change and resistance.
Yeah, so thank you for your time. And I look forward to discussion
questions on clarification at this point
classification? Right? Yes.
okay.
I haven't.
So I'm gonna I'm gonna I love the question. But I'm gonna relay that to the discussion part later on, because it's going to be a longer answer. Right? It's it's a, is that okay with you?
Yeah, okay. so
I'm going to Gerald, are you there, and are you ready to rule
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: to do the next present if I I come on a boat? Is it okay?
Sorry? What did you say, Gerald? The next presenter?
Yes. Can you please share your screen and also turn on your camera? If you're okay with that? And so we can see your slides if you have them.
So we have 4 presentations. Today, we have one online which is going to be this one coming up right now from Uganda, calling in
Gerald just to give you an idea of the view of the room. It's been filling in nicely in in the meantime, so I think we have about 20 people in the room right now. it's a room without any windows or connection to the outside world, right? There's no
no connection to, to, to, to to place or time. in this space. And it's a it's a very formal conference. Setting with Brett chairs and And the black panel
table, etc. I'm going to be standing here, so you at least have someone to talk to, because there's nothing worse than talking into absolute space. Right? we are seeing your presentation. It's up. But it's still in what do you call that in in in overview mode. So I think you still. Yes, you need to push that one
and a super. What I'm gonna do is when I do this. It means you're 10Â min in. Please give me a thumbs up that you saw it. And when I do this, it means you have 2Â min left.
Okay, okay, the floor is yours.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: Thank you very much. And once again greetings from Uganda, East Africa.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: So what I'm presenting is part of my Phd, I chopped under my Pdf faces, which are mostly developing.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: I'm a
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: quick facts. as I mentioned that we are in East Africa, and the Uganda is a population of 48 million. They are projected in this year, 2,023,
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: with an annual growth rate of 3.3% we are in rocked country. But the Kampara, the case where I'm presenting is the capital
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: with the population, the best of over 9,000 passwords per square kilometer.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: and
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: the city has to make just some concentrations in form of settlements. I was precise 3 57,
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: and I'm looking at the case of
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: a technology which is prepayment in the provision of
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: and my study is the I'm going to to complementing theories one moment alone.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: An actor oriented theory, and the other one the social construction of technology
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: as a way of emotions mainly to enhance service provision
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: to enhance welfare. And these are matters that speak to us.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: issues of equity, issues of access issues over no.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: So repayment or what we must, you pay as you receive. I service as lead to an improvement in the product of customer care.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: A number of literature
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: in this case, customers or users with the
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: only to
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: what we know as access to the keys, are able to wrote to them with, create it, and use them whenever it suites them. without having to go through any other.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: Oh,
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: From the historical perspective, we have had conventional what the supply approach is in
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: wow like in a minute. I we are, you know, people are able to apply for 5 to.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: and they have to fulfill some requirements. They proof of ownership of
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: those home States. and then they go to the service, provide the apply for water, and they are able to get connection and stuff to paying some fees.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: Now, the problem with that approach is that
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: it's excluded a number of individuals, a number of communities who, because of one of these or or another, probably do not have
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: a proof of veranda ownership, or do not own homes. So at the traditional covariant, what a service provision approach was in a way excluding them
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: again as sociologists and looking coming from the background of the social construction of technology theory.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: the technology does not understand in human action what if you want to the technologies that we see that we use that to receive.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: And again, a to that humanity definition in the application.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: human behavior is shaped by a cultural and historical context.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: the picture. There is one of those
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: applications they top of that I'm talking about. And it's been used by one of communities. So
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: I get it to. Not that technology is not. But I'm so it's something that he's always changing at this point
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: the the Communism system, the experiences and feedback from users. It's a negotiated social idea that develops through exchanges
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: in a designer's policymakers and other actors.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: and it obviously is affected by various view points, interests and over the use of Aktas.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: So
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: us us make different meetings
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: and look at the usefulness they are passing. Email is with which these technologies are accessible used zoom
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: possible. They actually say they look at this security and privacy and a number of
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: other interests
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: considerations. And really this is when users make
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: Russia. No choice is whether to adopt, whether to utilize or to stay away from
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: a number of information that we see
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: The word presents are squeeze. Now we have a case that my study is interested or has been,
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: the Service Provider in Uganda. A utility service provider that is a responsible for pipe to water in the day
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: tones in the sixties of Uganda.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: But since they are a 2,000, the service provider, like many other Government departments has gone through a number of reforms.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: and the one with them has been, taking what us an economically good to rather than a social good. So people have.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: and but the how they cost this has been the way of incommodification, of water service, and the issue of costing property is something that has now been put high on my agenda.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: So.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: but the utility had to look for means to make sure that it looks for if it's the the money, because.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: traditionally.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: collecting your revenues from the supplied water was a challenge
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: specifically in the form of settlements. which are you that risky communities.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: So prepayment was seen as a
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: solution that would enable the utility to collect this money from
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: people not to pay.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: Now, this study has adopted the prose, sexual and design.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: and we have a, for example, in number
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: p. 4 month interviews with the service provider at the management available and at operational level.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: and then on the side of users.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: you and the 2,
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: but also
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: conducted a number of groups.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: Was it a different interest to groups
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: respect to whether they are using the technology or not as long as it is installed and operation in their communities.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: And one of the things is that
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: the technology that has been operational in these informal settlements, that the integrity service provide. The propagated
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: is like you, date, no wrong. The functional because of the additional challenges, and on what it would be the provision of spare parts
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: and the the the issue of social marketing to ensure that the users appreciate
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: and the use the technology is something that has also been largely
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: missing, because the service provider folks of
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: allow for a robust budget to undertake this activity. But then we notice that in a form of settlements they are lots of social dis locations. New people can be a, as others refuse to new other a settlement.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: And so it's it's very important that
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: a routine interruption is made between the day service provider and the users of the technology, so that the users appreciate how the technology works and how
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: the benefits it presents and how users needed to go about any operational challenges that it may arise.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: But what we will find is that there is a very thin interaction between the service provider and the users and
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: a bit of issues like
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: missing. And
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: we did a first see that
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: the problem of undiatriization is cropping up. Users are the fighting back to the old and safe water systems in the city.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: We are now again, until now, in the 20 first century, we see cases of breakdown of not a bonic diseases in the city
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: the pay for it, more especially in the rainy season, because the technology has been
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: put in place, but accompanying measures to enable it function.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: and it will us us
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: in that we did enable users access.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: What are us
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: otherwise? A social tariff is being probably marked, because not enough
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: accompanying measures have been in place. So
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: what that means is that despite the benefits a technology presence was
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: users have not been
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: since. That is the enough.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: Take it through how we 2 up.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: so that they appreciate the benefits. their understanding, and the meaning that they make out of it.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: then it becomes
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: largely the to the main is
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: you you and you try, is it?
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: And this is something that service probably doesn't need to speak to, so that any technology they propagate
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: display to the
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: that's what to speak to the understanding of the users, because we know that users are people with the agency. They act as with the agents who make mean.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: and because of that, the challenge of. And if I is it innovation? It remains.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: because first of all in this is you find that users remote to me, for yes, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but I think you can't see me So you have a a small 2Â min left
just to make sure that I think you're nearing the end. But I wanted to point that out.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: So it makes us us to the that all the systems. And then sometimes
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: we get in complete utilization of this technologies.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: what That means is that utility service providers needed to put in a place robust implementation, and if anything.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: a robust innovation and management processes in terms of a marketing in terms of, you know, by routing systems in terms of our company measures in terms of position and the maintenance to ensure that today
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: innovations that come out to support, especially the disadvantaged communities speak to. They need this. Speak to the context. I thank you.
Thank you, Gerald.
Thank you very much.
which means we're now transitioning back to a presentation in the room. And actually, it's going to be me, because I'm not a formal chair. Today, I'm actually report presenter, and I was made here about 1Â min before the
I'm going to tell you that I get to wrap up in my own story. Just let me know when I'm 10Â min in
I'm going to try to keep it to 10Â min because I
the
I might just have to
kind of changed my head into Presenting my story from from from keeping time. Good morning, everybody. Hi! I'm very happy to see you here. Thank you for being here, and Listening into this presentation.
My name is Danielle Chevalier. I am from Bladder University in the Netherlands, and I'm actually from the law faculty of Vlad University because I am a sociologist and anthropologist. But I'm also a lawyer. I'm actually a social legal scholar working at the intersection of law and society with a very keen interest on what happens with law in urban dynamics and how they interact.
what I'm presenting today is very much a work in progress, a project in development. And and actually, today, first of July is the formal start of a project that I've been granted a grant for to to develop. So I'd like to take you with me in my thoughts. And and I'm also really going to be asking your input, on, on, on what I'm what I'm doing. I have to press this button. No, this button.
since every time
yeah, here I am. So I I now press this. Okay? So one of my interest is the regulation of public space. Right? I'm I'm I'm that lawyer person, and I I I make a hobby of collecting
pictures of signs forbidding certain activities in public space. And this is a picture I took on Flinders Street Station last. Saturday of Sunday when I when I arrived here, a picture showing that it's not allowed to skateboard in that place.
The other pictures are showing that this is indeed Flinder Street, and I was when I was uploading the presentation just now in the Speaker's room. Nick, from the speaker's room, said, Oh, yeah, Linda station. That's a very famous spot to get together in Melbourne. This is those clocks there, and if you say if you want to meet you, say, let's beat under the clocks in in Melbourne State. It's also a really good place for skating, because you know what is more fun than skating in a place where it's not allowed.
where there's a heavy traffic, and then being caught by by this
in the words of Nick, a overweight security guard and have him chase you. There's no better thrill for a 13 year old right now. When I was walking past, I noticed the setup at the What is this for you? The far right. And I knew something was going to go down. And I
actually made a video clip. But I'm not technical, artificially advanced enough to to anonymize that. So I just took a a clip out of it.
And this is a a screenshot out of the clip. I took. So this is someone going down the steps.
on that place where you're not allowed to skate.
And this is the security guard. not overweight and actually pretty cool. He said it was a great trick, but you're not allowed to do that, so don't do it now do it when I'm gone.
I'm sure that for everybody in the room this scene has a lot of triggers. but I'm going to pull the attention to one specific trigger. and that's the guy on the far right.
because if you zoom in, you see, on the one hand he's holding a skateboard, and on the other hand, he's where he's holding this small mobile device.
Now in the
I want to go back one in the previous picture. You see him on the far right.
filming
the advent down the stairs. Right? So I'm assuming that what we're seeing here is that he is checking out how the clip
worked out.
because it's probably going to be posted somewhere, and this leads me to my question. My interest in how social media affects the production of space.
Now, unfortunately, Flinders Street is not my
area of research. It's one closer to home. And it's this skate park in Amsterdam.
on Zebra Island.
It was open in 2,020. It's the largest concrete slab skate park in the Netherlands, and and and and one of the larger ones in Northern Europe.
If you look at the far right. You see the the the black and white is Amsterdam in total. The so this gate part is at the east side of Amsterdam, connecting Amsterdam east to Amsterdam, north.
and I've been researching this site from various angles. So I've been looking at, and I need to check my time, because this is where I can tend to wander. I haven't been looking at my time.
I've been researching this site From from the angle of built environment and planning, because, as the the the island is a man built island, it
came about right in the 19 hundreds. It's actually landfill from the river. It's been a military area. It's been the sewage area for Amsterdam East, and only in the early 2,000 was it redeveloped as this middle-income, high-income, residential area. So I've been looking at that, and how the skate park, this huge skate park came about in the midst of this pretty, densely built presidential area.
As a moor. I have, of course, been looking at the regulation of the space, so I put in one of the signs in the area. you can see. the the urban skate zone in different zones. So you see the the the green level of the skate, the streets skate level! You see the red, the the green, blue, you see the red of the intermediate level, and you see the black zone as the place where the pools are, and those pools are pretty deep, I can tell you. I wouldn't want to go down there, let alone on wheels.
And anyone who has ever done any winter sport might recognize the indication of ski beasts right? This also indicates that this is an area of high-risk action sport.
So you go in. You break your wrist or your ankle, and the municipality is not liable. You can't, to the municipality.
right? So that's that's behind that picture as well. I'm also looking at the different narratives of this skate zone, because
skateboarding used to be a counterculture, and I'm fascinated how it's increasingly being commodified by authorities, and the picture up, and the and in the top is of this organization women riding skates which use the skate zone to empower women through the embodied appropriation of space, which is a pretty different narrative than the the one of the counterculture of the 1970 s. And in California
I'm taking too much time, I'm sure. But again.
my interest today, my new interest, my focus, is triggered by something like this. So these are 2 adolescents on the skate zone. The one up front is skating, and the one behind it is holding a pretty advanced camera.
Filming the one in front, making the trick.
They are 16 and 17 years old. The one in the front is 17 is actually a surfer. and he has his own Youtube channel.
But every now and then he looks to do also some tricks on the skateboard and and and add that to his Youtube channel. They had a short day at school, and they traveled for an hour and a half to the specific skate part to see if they could shoot some clips here on the skate park.
So how does this impact
public space and the production of public space. Now.
public space for me is made up of 2 components, and my go to first go to places, for both components are always the favor for the space and a haber mas for the public.
The fabulous.
known, or not known to you was a French spatial thinker who said that space is produced through the interplay of 3 dimensions, perceived space plans, phase, lip space. And this was something he wrote down in 1,974, when admittedly he was 73. But the the original works from 1,974 it got traction in the 1990 s. When it was translated into English.
Now one of my arguments is that looking at 2,023,
the triad of Lafava still holds but a new dimension can be discouraged. A fourth dimension.
the dimension of virtual space.
not in opposition to physical space, but enmeshed with that physical space, and in constant dialogue with the concrete and and and material manifestation of public space.
With regard to the planned space by the technologists, by the planners, the dominators of space. In the words of Lethabra.
what I see happening in this skate park is that on a 2.6 million euro budget for the skate Park municipal money, right?
Some 400,000 was reserved to create an artwork on this skate zone.
So by Erez Ruskamp, anyone familiar with the Netherlands, she also did the the the tile art in the market hall of Rotterdam. It's a well-known Dutch artist. She has about 40,000 Separate tiles, which I've all been put up by hand, and I have a whole expose on how this tile art
links in with the Dutch steel's plough. Dutch blue. how it links into the pool, setting the blue with the pool setting of of the pools, and how the Doodles link into ballpoint Doodles that people would make during meetings like these, when they didn't have a mobile phone to look on yet, but had to bubble Doodle with a ballpoint on a piece of paper instead. So a lot of different kind of but but it the artwork was put up
so that what a video is shot in this place and shared. it's very clear where the video was made.
It was made in Amsterdam. It was made in this location. It's part of the city branding of Amsterdam.
and I've been looking at what to make of that. And this is, I've been loving this conference.
and this is where this conference has really given me a big push, because on Monday, on a panel, I organized some leisure in the city. I had a wonderful presentation by Jose. Who pointed me in the direction of one urbanism.
in, in, in the Chinese context. Which refers to locations having Internet celebrity
and people checking in Daca, apparently checking into a location by making a picture of themselves in that location and sharing it on social media, saying, This is where I'm at. But then you need to have a a notice of. You need to have a very remarkable point, right?
So one hung urbanism was was the one thing that that I'm taking away from this conference. Interestingly enough, one of the authors is apparently at the Faculty of Humanities at my university, about 500 metres from my office. So this is, you know, coming to Melbourne and coming back to to later for that
and the other one is the interaction with, perceived and and and lived space. And I'm looking towards the the the art world. And I had a very nice presentation on someone who is explaining how modern museum experiences about people
moving around through a museum, not
bodily sensory in the experience, but everything mediated through that mobile device, taking pictures of framing, choosing the frame of what they're showing, but also the the, the disconnect, because everything is going mediated through that mobile device device had a very nice presentation on that as well.
The other thing, the other component of public space is the public right. And Habermas who in 1,962, wrote his Structural transformation on public space, but who
in 2023, brought out at the age of 93. So that's that's a nice bar for everybody of us to, to, to look up to. At the age of 93 published a new work called The New Structural Transformation of Public Sphere, in which he argues that the digitalization, the the the digital realm, is really causing a new structural transformation of that public sphere.
And one of the issues he pulls out, and he finds very worrisome is that the public sphere
on digital platforms treats participants, not as citizens, but as consumers
and participants on those digital platforms also behave as consumers.
So the whole conversation going on is no longer about shared political issues, but much more about private preferences.
And he finds that very worrisome as a lawyer I find it interesting that his solution he seeks in law. He says we should regulate it.
And and on paper. I'm I'm really feeling with the argument he's making, but the practice I see on the skate zone
that I'm using as my case study. I'm not seeing a one on one translation.
Of his worry.
because I'm not quite sure of if there's 2 boys
adolescents, apologies. If those 2 adolescents that I showed earlier on
are not in some way also acting as citizens in the sense of participants in a wider society.
So I have questions there like I said, this is work in progress. This is we commencing, and this is where I end. And that's 2 questions to you is when I'm looking at this question.
who should I talk to? What should I read?
And that's something you can give me now you can also I'm very happy. If at a later point than K. And I know something else, and you reach out to me here.
I've crossed the 10Â min boundary, but I think I've stayed within the 15Â min boundary. So I'm closing my a presentation, and I thank you.
And then this means I need to exit that I want to go to the
to the zoom screen. So that yeah, Gerald can also
be here.
Yeah, and open the room for questions. Now, my suggestion is, we try to collect 3 questions, maybe 4. But let's say a try, Prefest.
and have those answered.
We have this wonderful. I love special.
I know it's a
you know it's behind the table. You form the same with merchants that you make it more of a route in the session.
and I think you need a master.
So
Hi, Joe, give us a shout. If if at any point you cannot follow what we're what we're doing, I'll I'll try and stick to my spot here, so you can at least see me.
I'm a following. I'm a following everything super and can I ask everybody also to just briefly State name and affiliation. Yeah, the name is we're saying he' I'm coming from Homeworld University in Berlin. my questions for you, and sort of like a a question and recommendation The first question is,
I was wondering, did you try to see how
how the the the social media sort of starts to
redefined in in a way that is more
that is more daring, because I had recently seen these features from the from my original cons, which is Iran. This about these girls who drove back the hijab and posing in front of sort of like provocative, provocatively posing through in front of spaces that are with that are decorated with, so to speak, religious messages and this sort of stuff, and then
posted it online in order to encourage others to do the same, and be out and about in a way that is not a likes. By the by, the State. Second, I would recommend to try the app be real. I don't know if you heard of it. Period is an app which tells you to take a picture of yourself
at the middle of the day, or whatever it like, tells you to a picture. Now, it's like spontaneous, without any preparation. It's because of any decoration or a location that is.
choose. So it's more spontaneous in order to where you are, and I I am using it, and I found myself. When it messages me I start to notice my surrounding. Where is better to pose for a picture, and it's sort of give me another awareness of the of the of my surroundings. So I would say it would be really great for you, I think, to to take a look at that app as well. Super. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Hi, thank you for all your presentation. They were really cool. Actually, I have a very similar question to you. And then I have a question to Joe, and so my question is because, like, for example, with the skaters community, it's not like they've been starting a video over coding their tricks like, just with
like rice of social media, but they've been doing it for a long time, probably my Mullen or Tony Hog. They did it in 90 and seventies, and people just wanted the tapes. So my question is, how actually, like social media changed it like, whatever you notice, any kind of change, because, like
from what my understanding was that you said, Okay, they are recording the spaces. And just this recording is changing. But it's not like they they start as recording like 10 years ago. So whatever you see, any differences with the rise of social media and the question to Joe, was I I headed in mind in this, and just a second ago.
oh, yeah. And I I was wondering whether you had any chance to talk to these people who cheated this national, whatever
initiative, like the Accounting Steps initiative. And why did they do it? What was the reason? Because, like what? What you said, the incentives to over very small. And so why did they buy this devices that well, shaking their trackers? And I mean, if you did it, or if you have any kind of.
and predictions why they did it. Because, like for my work, I know that people, for example, if they have
this kind of incentives, they might start treating their walks. They as a job. So then enjoy it less. So I I was wondering about your insight. Thank you.
Okay. And I didn't introduce myself, and my name is Mikoyi, from the Robert Science Institute.
our social studies at the University of War. So thank you. Thank you very much. I know there was one question way at the beginning, can I? I don't know your name. We met out the front before, but you had a question
which was about clarification, but also a longer question.
Yes.
am I sorry? Am I lost? Yeah, maybe if you could in the microphone, the session is being recorded. So then, if you put it in the microphone, it will be recorded and online. And I asked earlier about a glorification question about the Government's attempt to counter these attempts to trick the system to the game game gamification, because
obviously it is technically possible to distinguish between Shakers and actual walking patterns, and because it is well known, I mean, I have in my one of my presentation. I just so if I show students, if
a twitter at which, from 2,018 from Habin in China, of someone used the one of these automatic Shakers. So it's not very new. So they are obviously aware of it. So wonder whoever they are, bothered by this fact, whoever it is, any dynamics about it.
Thank you. But I'm going to be. These are 3 questions. If if you agree, we're going to first answer these, and then we're going to go into the next round. Okay, Joe, can I invite you first? Sure is this is this on?
Yeah. Okay, so I answer your question first, about whether the government knows about it
upfront. I'm still trying to negotiate like, my interviews with Government officials. They've been quite reluctant to talk to me about. the National steps challenge. I can kind of understand why but my! So so a couple of things to note is that the trackers are very unsophisticated. They're very, very cheaply made. I also think it's
it might be difficult to actually know when exactly people are walking and when they're using the trackers, because all it does is just count, and then it uploads the number at the end of the day onto the app itself. And so I think there is a bit of
muddle muddled in and
like figuring out when people are actually walking when they're using a Shaker. And also people do both like sometimes they walk, and then sometimes, if they're like, it's a lazy day. I'm not going to. You'll just use the Shaker. And so then it's hard to distinguish really like when they're going to
California. And another thing is that
strikingly, or at least to me it was striking. Is that they have published articles right in these medical journals about the steps challenge, and how we've created this population-wide challenge. And it's really increased. And they show these nice graphs of how people have been walking more since they've
started the challenge. And then, in their data cleaning process they don't ever talk about. We've cleaned up the data of people that we can tell are cheating on the national steps. Challenge. It's more like so long as people use it consistently. Over 3 days we've included them into our account for the for this data set.
however, the the step challenge has actually changed. quite substantially, very recently. So in in fact, of this year, they restructured the program to focus less on walking and more on a heart rate which is a bit harder to how to to cheat!
And so then, instead of 10,000 steps being the gold now it's 5,000 steps, but it was 10,000, for since it started in 2,015 all the way until this year, and then now it's you get. You get also overall lesser points in the day. You get used to get 80 points every day, as so long as you hit 10,000 steps, and you did about 30Â min it. The watch recognizes that you did 30Â min of moderate configurance activity.
And now, if you do 5,000 steps, and you hit your 30Â min. You only get 30 points. And this caused a lot of the stress. A lot of people were quite angry about it. Some people are talking about kind of withdrawing from the the challenge at all. But but
yeah, don't see a point. Yes, I think the government is aware. I think it's difficult to tell when people are doing what and they are actively trying to To move people away from gamifying it.
although my question then would be why it took so long.
And then to the other question about talking to people who, whether whether or not, why they're they're cheating it. I think it's quite interesting.
because so I have talked to. I've talked to some people, and I would like to talk to more. There is a kind of.
There is a kind of shame element here where people don't like talking about the fact that they've been cheating on the challenge, perhaps understandably But For people who do talk about it, they say that it's just it feels good that they can. They have this nice bonus at the end of the day, where you know, they didn't really do much. But then they still get these these points, and then they can buy a drink at the end of it. So for them, like
the the that I I keep hearing in my interviews is like, Oh, it's a bonus for me, and and even for the people who do walk at the end of the day, like on your point about people feeling less enjoyment about it.
I've asked it if it feels laborers for them, and they said, No, it doesn't, because well, first of all, the 10,000 steps is not a high. It's not a high bar. for some people! And so then, as they go about their day, by the time they get home at the end of it, they? They've realized they hit about 8,000 steps, and so then they don't. They don't think it's laborers to to hit that 2,000 steps more. What is interesting is how people have been changing their behaviors.
to to get the 10,000 steps to. So the balance of that 2 down steps sometimes to get off the bus, and they walk like 2 bus stops to get to their home, or they'll just end up walking a lot more and taking the public transport. So
that's been something that's quite interesting.
Thank you. Thank you.
I had 2 questions myself, and I'm going to answer them together. One was, and if the if if social media is a redefining space as as a more daring space, and the tricks more and more daring, and the other one is what? What is the impact of social media visa visa, the the tradition of visualizing the the skateboarding? and I think Both question ties together in in exactly what triggers my, my, my! My interest in this
because So my primary introduction to skateboarding was a documentary called dog Town and Z boys, which I inherited from someone doing. Urban urban sociology course before me. I'm demonstrating how a certain built environment gives rise to a certain counterculture
and skateboarding has always been very visual, has always really showed the dangerous tricks and the wildness of the skateboard and culture.
I think that's why it's a good case study, because it's both that very embodied appropriation of physical space and that interaction with the visual. I think one of the so it's the visual has always been to show how wild and dangerous and and and cool. Tricks of skateboarding were, I think, what happens with social media is the immediacy of it.
So it's immediately shared, and it's shared with a much wider audience than the the collection of people who know each other to pass video tapes or not. I was talking about this in the speaker's room with Nick just before uploading this presentation. It's a much wider, and you get to Geo-tag.
where you have done a certain clip.
plus
it's repeated.
So sometimes it's streamed immediately. So you have it, then it's directly after. But you can go back to it.
in in this, is there? There's a time loop in there as well
looking at what Bakhtin says about that. So I'm I'm still exploring that. But I think there is an immediacy which which changes because of the social media.
I think I'm going to keep my answer at that, and I'm going to open the floor for a second round, and I'm going to ask first people who have a question for either Gerald or Casey.
and I'm I'm loving this room. Thank you. By the way, I'm I'm I'm I'm glad you're engaged. Can I ask you first?
Yes, thank you, Casey, for the great presentation. I've been very moved because I was one of the victims of this system. and the picture that you showed with this car covered in snow was exactly what happened when the
hydrant was covered in snow, and I parked there and then. I got this notice, which I very quickly paid because I was so afraid I was in the Us. For a short time, and I thought, Oh, they will not allow me back in. So
it. It was in this way funny, but I I was looking at the results and thinking about the racial aspects.
It seems to me actually pretty logical to rip off white people instead of Latino or
black ones, for obviously reasons. But I was also thinking, is it not somehow connected to the patterns of controlling the streets
that maybe in black and Latino communities the officers are less dispatched. Let's say so. They just
monitor those regions where the white people are dominant more often.
Would that be any type of did you? Did you look into that, or could you? Could you maybe
tell a bit more
about this effect in in terms that could maybe relate to
the way police is operating or other services that are connected to this control in parking space. Thank you.
Can I? Sorry, unless you don't want to, after having a bit of getting a fine? Who are you?
Thank you. And then I saw another question back. Yep.
Hello! From the Essex School of Management in France. I also have a question for Casey. So I am an ethnographer, and I studied the Dutch police for many years, which one year also in the street with them following them closely.
and from that I would like to play a bit of a devil's advocate to your to your so study! Because I think it's very interesting to look at these patterns, and and and
to to indicate
what what seems like wrongdoing right, the fact that they intentionally find people
without any evidence for it being there.
Now, coming from my own ethnography, coming from my time with the Dutch police. I also have another story around that, and that is that and I. I know that there is a difficulty comparing the Dutch police to the Chicago police. That's first of all but
These police officers also often use, at least in the Netherlands. These tick these these tickets as a way to work around heavier fines. So when they interact with people, and they know that actually, they should get something else, they kind of compromise and say, Okay, I give you a a smaller ticket, or I give this this this behavior
a less impressive fine
to kind of work around
having to put people into the system into the database with a heavier
conviction or a heavier crime.
In that sense
you could also argue that this is not wrong doing right, or that this is not coming from a sense of carelessness. But there is other motives behind it.
I'm not saying that it's always happening. But I was just wondering
what if you take out this assumption of whatever you call it, wrongdoing, carelessness, and whatever.
how would that influence what you found? Would it influence what you found
you still?
Thank you.
question to the room. Does. Is there a question for Gerald?
And if not, would you mind if I
go in as a do you have that? Because I have a question for gel, they would. Would you mind if I then switch back from from being chaired to being another presenter asking the question, okay, so
Gerald, are you ready for me?
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: I love it.
I love your presentation. Thank you. Thank you very much, and I have a question. I'm not quite sure if I'm going to be able to articulate or formulate it correctly. But there were 2 things that I I kind of hooked up on, and I'm just
maybe it's a question of clarification of the minus 7. But my overall impression
was that you are taking a a perspective from From from the State
rather than the users of the water system. So I I was getting more communication to seeing like a state than being a citizen.
and that kind of held up with on the one hand the the the right to water as a human right to remember the lawyer and and neoliberal criticism. you know, on on how that is being filled in that right to water, or the access to water is being filled in. and something you had on your introduction slide where you said that
human action shapes technology. And actually, I would want to invite you to talk about how technology
shapes human action and in what way that impacts the access to water, the right to water
so But you don't have to answer immediately, because first, I think we're going to go to Casey for his answers.
So Let me think both of the the audience members for the questions in there.
Earnest engagement with the project.
So I'll just tackle the questions kind of like in the water that they that they were brought up first, one dealing with the this hair issue of control over the streets. I should say that this ticketing projects that are presented today.
It's it's really kind of the T of the iceberg. This is a much broader project where
there are a lot of different capital interests beyond just i em that are.
and some kind of situating it to within the
the changing style of urban governance within Chicago, increasingly becoming more monetizing the streets, privatized to services and so many capital interests, book corporate, and even like small mom and Pop, I guess you could say
capitalists based in Chicago, sometimes with competing interest at that.
this whole issue of control over the streets. So the the point.
It's well taken that I think in retrospect, it's kind of obvious that you know.
There, there! There's plenty of white people who get police like every single day. I would say that in kind of coming to this conclusion.
and seeing this with Eric ticket specifically, that I would also contextualize it with another piece of my project that that would highlight the differential forms of like the punitive nature of of ticketing and towing that's coming into play. Whereas if you park in a predominantly, you know, white neighborhood where you have this hyper segregated environment that is, Chicago being segregated on just obscene levels.
You're more likely to see, just like a paper ticket that orange breeding cart you left on people's car, and that's the end of the exchange. Right?
However, if you look at, say, like ticketing that relates to toeing, and then looks at where those incidents cluster. I think this speaks to the whole issue of control over the streets right where the the more intense, the more harsh, the more punitive reaction is
tools that the State has at its disposal. Those disproportionately get imposed on to predominantly Latinx and black communities there.
and and I should also back up to a say sorry that happened to you. I wouldn't be surprised if it happened to you in Chicago, where you got ticketed like that it's crazy. I would say that
this Chicago is kind of unique from at least Los Angeles
in New York and the United States context, and that there's no statute of limitations on parking debt to this day. There's still like 2.8 billion dollars.
the outstanding parking there
that actually ensnares people in a lot of ways, I mean, beyond, like the the late penalties. And one of the things that I didn't get to get into. I brought up bankruptcy
in the United States. Chicago is now the Bank of Sea capital of the United States.
If you trace out, like, okay, one of the reasons that people are filing me either for or hugely. They have 2 options available to them. It's chapter 7 or Chapter 13.
Why are people doing? You know.
they basically claiming financial ruin, and this parking ticket a part of this group
broader picture. But this speaks to, you know, like
kind of
there are so many principles that that
connected to this broader like apparatus. And how these consequences? It's not just a
it's been.
It could be like penalties. You'd be interacting with debt collectors, they could be interacting with the bankruptcy attorney for for bid, like some of these tickets, actually end up. If you have so many of them, they can lead to a driver's license to sketch right, and then, if you get caught for driving without a license, all of a sudden it enhes you and it to you within the criminal legal system side of the law which now we're talking about prison time.
So we're talking about a spiral that I think it would be out of control.
And then, okay. So
to to the second question, talking about tickets as a
as a means of lesser sanction
at that point is very well taken. I I should clarify. I'm not concerned about the motivations of ticketers. I'm simply trying to look at this from
pattern type perspective.
So, regardless of their intentions, like the ticket it's one of be imposed.
But I will say that
there's some really interesting work that's being done in Chicago, looking at building inspectors by Robin Hartr, and she just published a book last year where she was kind of talking about how building inspectors really come in as advocates for a lot of 4 of them of color go in there. And they're
and really use their role as a pushback to all of these basically predatory landlords. I like slumboards within the city of Chicago.
and one of the things that she identifies is like, even though they have, like the best of intentions, and they're really trying to use their role to push for some positive good. They're still in that
in this hour glass economy
that you have in Chicago. There's a lot of really high paying jobs.
I'm not poor folks, and just not much of the middle class at all. And there's this intense style of capitalism that really like, despite their best of intentions, you know oftentimes, whenever they do push certain violations of the building, though right
those costs, or those those fixes that happen to a building end up getting fun back to the venture, and they still have to pay for it. So I imagine there might be some type of parallel process that
is there to the right.
So say that there's some other more egregious violation that happens that
it comes with a much larger refined amount. Say, the ticket area duning goes with a lesser amount.
That person we got a ticket is still situated within this broader system of
all of those hardships, too.
Thank you.
So, Gerald, switching over to you. you and I got Uganda right now. talking about how social media affects the production of space. Right?
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: Okay, thank you very much for your question and the for your presentation as well. I've really been following closely and enjoying the interaction.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: yeah, you really an important aspect. And I have also
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: read quite about it in literature, but also as an individual.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: Let's see, I would say.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: we have prepayment, say, technology as a means to access
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: water. that obvious, there is a human rights issue.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: If somebody has got to pay upfront to access water. What happens
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: if the person it doesn't have?
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: And I know, in the countries with the strong emphasis on human rights, best approaches in the African you were an example of South Africa.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: There has been a lot of litigation against repayment as a technology
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: to access
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: this. Yeah.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: And what the State had to do is to
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: provide some disc cost of water which every household can access, irrespective of whether they have
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: any grid for any money now
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: in our case in Uganda. yes, at the Constitution it talks about human rights best.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: No approach
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: but he. The extent to which this is translated into policies and practice is still in its infancy. So
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: you ask an important question, how does human behavior shift technologies? Or how does technology shape? You want to. Behavior. Idea in my understanding is that
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: those who innovate and the design these technologies should speak to, they need to. So they, they, they, the users. Now the interaction with the technology that they intended us to make
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: the meaning they
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: fid. Bakar they give, should also inform the innovators to
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: either make that adjustments or make improvements. So that I'd ultimately technologies, self human needs enable human beings or users to access what to meet their needs. And that kind of interface that interpret is a process that happens over time, space, and
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: in our case, for example, this repayment port that I'm looking at was first by routed in Iran in 2,006. So 16 years down the road
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: the interaction is still taking place.
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: A. We see us as making some team cutting on the technology, but also the service provider, but also moving to make some kind of changes in terms of you know, the software I use, and a number of other technological assemblages, so that interaction is
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: taking place with time and space and
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: human behavior in terms of how users are you tracing this service? The technology, if feedback are, they give, and
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: ultimately how the activities also delivering the service ships, that kind of interruption, and the I kind of saw some
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: changes taking place to
AHABWE Zihembire Gerald: make the service speak to the needs of the people.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
Which closes this round and leaves us time for a third row. I see a hand popping up immediately to If you would care to come up again to the microphone super.
Hello! I'm Trittichi. I'm from India. I have just finished my post talk at Cambridge, and I'm back in India teaching right now, and I had a question comment to Professor Daniel
and I was just thinking about what you spoke about Haber Mas's new book, and how he was speaking about. the public in the Internet sphere being more of consumers. And I was thinking along something like Toffler's conception of the presumer, and how with the Internet. And specifically the web 2, where we can interact the way we do, people are more of
produces and consumers together in that they also create their own content. and so they are using the services provided by the tools of the Internet. But they are also creating content, not just consuming it so maybe that could be something that is helpful to think about for your kind of project. I'll come afterwards for the right spelling. Thank you
first, and then
Hi! Thank you very much for your presentations. I have a question I'm putting. Were you from Saint Louis in France?
I have a question to Joe when you started your presentation. I immediately thought about the work of James Scott and the everyday forms of resistance.
So where for him, like practices, such as pilfering or food dragging, you become active political act of residence. And his work has been criticized a lot, because well, basically, the idea is that if you're seeing a resistance everywhere, you're kind of teaching the concept of resistance
summarize really, really poorly. And and so I was wondering if in your interviews. You mentioned that
the way your performance was averting the challenge. It was mostly for economic gain, I think, to get the vouchers, etc., and I was wondering if, in your interview some of them
framed it as a political act, or if they made any resistance to the States, because you mentioned Singapore as a soft author. But authoritarianism. Yeah. And I was wondering if they perceive it a political act in itself. Thank you.
Thank you. please.
Thank you very much. I couldn't attend all presentation
but what I could see, and I heard
one of the things that you mentioned about the leverage, and try out up the the February.
perceive the space.
leave this space and conceive this space.
in which I think virtually space can also be embedded in the concept, displacement the planners or architect
imagines about this space and creates this space. So that's one thing. Second, when we see the linkage between La Fever and Herbert mask.
Now you, we see that more and more spaces are getting privatized. So public spaces are declining.
and in that context lever is the idea of appropriation of a space and right to the city. I think that is very, very relevant. But more fundamental question is that
when we talk about production of space, we also need to talk about production of time.
So time and space. organizing digital economy and digital society and providing a basis for capital accumulation.
So giving priority to production may be more important to understand the the the social struggle and type of the rights violation rather than locating in the consumption spaces. I am RAM, bare International Institute for Population Sciences.
I just super renovated from there for the last 3 decades of my services and migration and urban strategies. My area. Thank you. Thank you very much.
So I heard 2 comments and one question. So I think we have room for one more question, and we have it.
Thank you, Daniel. good morning, everyone. It was a lovely presentation for all. But I have. some commenters for for you, Daniel. So actually, I have a similar project with you at the moment. So, but we're looking at come from. But you've heard of. Come up. Sorry I haven't introduced myself. My name is Bargas. I'm from Itb, Indonesia. So Netherlands and Indonesia has a very long relations.
So and yeah, so I just the reason why I come to this conference actually to gain insight about digital sociology. So just to give you about input about what reading material. So I've
funds reading material from Deborah Upton. I'll tell you what, how about I reach out to you? Yeah, after this? Yeah. And then and would that would I work for you? Yes, yep, thank you, Super. Thank you very much. In which case I'm I'm going to give the floor to Joe, right? Am I still on track to ask the question.
yeah, thanks for your question. yeah. I think it's I think that's a great question. Actually, I. This whole idea about resistance and and the dilution of what exactly counts as acts of resistance like that's something that I've been struggling with as well. When I've been, I guess, conceptualizing the project and thinking about different ways in which
people live there, I really lives and negotiate with the States. You know, these these smart city programs. which is why, I guess there's the distinction between like negotiating with it, as opposed to, you know, resisting it actively. so. So yeah, I take your point. The sequence is that a lot of people actually don't. I haven't heard of people who have
thought about these acts of of gaming as actively, politically, you know, resisting against, like some form of control from the Government. But the people who have been are not on the challenge in time. People who who say, I don't want my data being collected this way. I don't want to be enrolled into this system. So I just. I'm not part of this, and I don't need like the kind of bonus that I get from the from the challenge.
Thank you.
It's a nearing quarter past 12.
and I want to check if there is any pressing questions still for the plenary, because otherwise I would want to suggest to you have a question. So, okay, I would want to suggest to to close the plenary and to offer some time still for some bilateral connections, and and and maybe time for a pit stop and a coffee before the next session starts at half-past
and then just finish off by thinking my Federal presenters and thanking the room for what I think has been an