The city as an algorithmic formation: insights from patent data

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Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation

Volume 14, Issue 1

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The city as an algorithmic formation: insights from patent data

research-article

Author(s): Lungani Hlongwa

Publication date (Print): 1 January 2020

Journal: Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation

Publisher: Pluto Journals

Keywords: smart city, algorithmic governmentality, platform capitalism, platform workers, patent analysis

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Abstract

Around the world, the idea of the smart city has captured the imagination of city governments and private industry. Both are thinking of ways to transform the city into a knowable and predictable space. Key to this transformation are algorithms whose work remains mostly invisible from the general public. However, algorithms are powerful entities that shape an ever-larger part of our lives. As a result, a growing body of research is focusing on how algorithms shape labour and general socio-economic life in the city. There is, therefore, a need to think more critically about how to research algorithms and the work they perform. This article makes use of patent data to show how algorithms shape urban citizenship and labour. Patent data are commonly used in business and technology environments to perform tasks such as innovation assessment, competitor analysis and tracking technological development. In this article, patent analysis is employed to address two interrelated objectives: to show the key players producing the algorithmically regimented city; and to investigate the key technologies they are working on and the evolutionary potential of these technologies. The aim of this article is twofold: first, to contribute to the various methods and perspectives for studying algorithms; second, to examine how patents and patenting facilitate the algorithmic governance of the city.

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (doi): 10.2307/j50010512

Journal ID (jcode): workorgalaboglob

Title: Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation

Publisher: Pluto Journals

ISSN: 1745-641X

ISSN: 1745-6428

Publication date (Print): 1 January 2020

Volume: 14

Issue: 1 ( doiID: 10.13169/workorgalaboglob.14.issue-1 )

Pages: 47-66

Article

Publisher ID: workorgalaboglob.14.1.0047

DOI: 10.13169/workorgalaboglob.14.1.0047

SO-VID: bdc90740-c498-487b-a2ec-02fb4b4d5a9e

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All content is freely available without charge to users or their institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission of the publisher or the author. Articles published in the journal are distributed under a http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

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lang eng

ScienceOpen disciplines: Sociology,Labor law,Political science,Labor & Demographic economics,Political economics

Keywords: platform workers,patent analysis,algorithmic governmentality,platform capitalism,smart city

REFERENCES

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Comments

Comment on this article

[1] Berg, J., M. Furrer, E. Harmon, U. Rani & M.S. Silberman (2018) Digital Labour Platforms and the Future of Work: Towards Decent Work in the Online World. Geneva: International Labour Office.

[2] Bessen, J. & R.M. Hunt (2007) An empirical look at software patents. Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, 16 (1):157-89.

[3] Bratton, B.H. (2016) The Stack: On Software and Sovereignty. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

[4] Casilli, A. A., & Posada, J. (2019) ‘The Platformization of Labor and Society’ in A. A. Casilli & J. Posada, Society and the Internet (pp. 293-306). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[5] Chen, J.Y. (2018) ‘Thrown under the bus and outrunning it! The logic of Didi and taxi drivers’ labour and activism in the on-demand economy', New Media & Society, 20 (8):2691-2711.

[6] Cheney-Lippold, J. (2018) We are Data: Algorithms and the Making of our Digital Selves. New York: NYU Press.

[7] Daim, T.U., G. Rueda, H. Martin & P. Gerdsri (2006) ‘Forecasting emerging technologies: Use of bibliometrics and patent analysis’, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 73 (8): 981-1012.

[8] Diakopoulos, N. (2013) Algorithmic accountability reporting: On the investigation of black boxes. A Tow/Knight Brief. New York, NY: Columbia Journalism School, Tow Center for Digital Journalism.

[9] European Patent Office (2017). ‘EPO - Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC)‘. Accessed March 23, 2020 from https://www.epo.org/searching-for-patents/helpful-resources/first-time-here/classification/cpc.html..

[10] Flyverbom, M., A.K. Madsen & A. Rasche (2017) ‘Big data as governmentality in international development: Digital traces, algorithms, and altered visibilities’, The Information Society, 33 (1):35-42.

[11] Galloway, S. (2017) The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. New York: Random House.

[12] Graham, S. J., & Mowery, D. C. (2003). Intellectual property protection in the U.S. software industry. In W. M. Cohen & S. A. Merrill (Authors), Patents in the knowledge-based economy (pp. 219-258). Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press.

[13] Hall, B.H., G. Thoma & S. Torrisi (2007) The Market Value of Patents and R&D: Evidence from European Firms. Academy of Management Proceedings, 2007 (1):1-6.

[14] Hall, J.V. & A.B. Krueger (2018) ‘An analysis of the labor market for Uber's driver-partners in the United States’, ILR Review, 71 (3):705-32.

[15] Harvey, D. (2013) The New Imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[16] Kang, B. (2015) ‘The innovation process of Huawei and ZTE: Patent data analysis’, China Economic Review, 36:378-93.

[17] Karvonen, M., R. Kapoor, A. Uusitalo & V. Ojanen (2016) ‘Technology competition in the internal combustion engine waste heat recovery: A patent landscape analysis’, Journal of Cleaner Production, 112:3735-43.

[18] Kim, J. & S. Lee (2015) ‘Patent databases for innovation studies: A comparative analysis of USPTO, EPO, JPO and KIPO’, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 92:332-45.

[19] Kitchin, R. (2017) ‘Thinking critically about and researching algorithms’, Information, Communication & Society, 20 (1):14-29.

[20] Kitchin, R., C. Coletta, L. Evans, L. Heaphy & D. MacDonncha (2017) ‘Smart cities, epistemic communities, advocacy coalitions and the “last mile” problem’, it - Information Technology, 59(6): 275-284.

[21] O'Neil, C., 2016. Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy. New York: Broadway Books.

[22] Pallant, J. (2017). How marketers use algorithms to (try to) read your mind. Accessed 15 October, 2017 from: http://theconversation.com/how-marketers-use-algorithms-to-try-to-read-your-mind-84682.

[23] Peterson, M.R. (1995) ‘Now You see it, now you don't: Was it a patentable machine or an unpatentable algorithm - on principle and expediency in current patent law doctrines relating to computer-implemented inventions’, George Washington Law Review, 64:90.

[24] Pilkington, A., R. Dyerson & O. Tissier (2001) ‘Patent data as indicators of technological development: investigating the electric vehicle’ in PICMET'01. Portland International Conference on Management of Engineering and Technology. Proceedings, vol. 1. Book of Summaries (IEEE Cat. No. 01CH37199), New York: IEEE:497-502.

[25] Rouvroy, A. & B. Stiegler (2016) ‘The digital regime of truth: From the algorithmic governmentality to a new rule of law’, La Deleuziana: Online Journal of Philosophy, 3:6-29.

[26] Rouvroy, A., T. Berns & E. Libbrecht (2013) ‘Algorithmic governmentality and prospects of emancipation’, Réseaux, 1:163-96.

[27] Sadowski, J. (2019) ‘When data is capital: Datafication, accumulation, and extraction’, Big Data & Society, 6 (1):2053951718820549.

[28] Savini, F. & M. Raco (2019) ‘The rise of a new urban technocrac’ in M. Raco & F. Savini (eds.), Planning and Knowledge: How New Forms of Technocracy are Shaping Contemporary Cities (pp. 3-17). Bristol: Policy Press.

[29] Srnicek, N. (2017a). Platform Capitalism. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

[30] Srnicek, N. (2017b) ‘The challenges of platform capitalism: Understanding the logic of a new business model’, Juncture, 23 (4):254-7.

[31] Sun, P. (2019) ‘Your order, their labor: An exploration of algorithms and laboring on food delivery platforms in China’, Chinese Journal of Communication, 12 (3):308-23.

[32] Trippe, A. (2015) ‘Guidelines for preparing patent landscape reports’ in Patent Landscape Reports, Geneva: WIPO:2015.

[33] Van Doorn, N. (2017) ‘Platform labor: On the gendered and racialized exploitation of low-income service work in the “on-demand” economy’, Information, Communication & Society, 20 (6): 898-914.

[34] Weatherby, L. (2018) ‘Delete your account: On the theory of platform capitalism’. Accessed May 30, 2020 from https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/delete-your-account-on-the-theory-of-platform-capitalism/.

[35] WIPO (2019) Patents. Accessed November 10, 2019 from https://www.wipo.int/patents/en.

[36] Yigitcanlar, T., M. Kamruzzaman, L. Buys, G. Ioppolo, J. Sabatini-Marques, E.M. da Costa & J.J. Yun (2018) ‘Understanding “smart cities”: Intertwining development drivers with desired outcomes in a multidimensional framework’, Cities, 81:145-60.

[37] Završnik, A. (2019) ‘Algorithmic justice: Algorithms and big data in criminal justice settings’, European Journal of Criminology, 1477370819876762.