Whither The State In The World Of Our Algorithmic Overlords?
We were delighted to be able to host TICTeCLocal recently in Federation House where civic tech practictioners from the UK and beyond examined how digital tools can be deployed to improve civic participation, streamline citizen interaction with public bodies, enable citizen monitoring of public institutions and create efficiencies in civic budgets. You can find out more about all the topics discussed on the day here
Our Director for Technology Engagement Emer Coleman Chaired the final session hosting a panel with Paul Maltby MHCLG, Alison McKenzieFolan Wigan Council, Theo Blackwell Chief Digital Officer for London and Phil Swan CIO GCMA. The question of whether we are citizens or customers in the context of local government had been a thread of conversation during the day and Emer kicked off the session by asking a few hard questions:
If adoption of civic technology like FixMyStreet takes a long time (given the procurement environment in local government) how scalable are our ambitions for civic tech in reality?
We presume in our civic tech conversations we are living in a democracy but can we really define our current political environments as democratic in the true meaning of that world (given the state of geopolitics at the moment) and if not are those in civic tech tinkering at the edges of a very broken system with which they are colluding?
And finally in relation to the question of Citizens or Customers given the rise of digital capitalism are the giant technology firms becoming state actors given their ever expanding role in our lives and if so are we becoming not only their customers but also their citizens?
This shift of functions from state to digtial capitalism is what Frank Pasquale describes as the shift from Territorial to Functional Sovereignty where when the state contracts private actors will fill the vacuum. For example, asks Frank “who needs city housing regulators when AirBnB can use data-driven methods to effectively regulate room-letting, then house-letting and eventually urban planning generally”. In their Samara project AirBnB is working on a communal housing project designed to revitalize a small town in Japan something it wants to scale to other declining towns around the world. But where does this fit within the democratic notion of uban planning? What consultation models to they have in mind? (if any) so in practice AirBnB can disintermediate the local planning system in even greater ways in the future than they have in the past.
We are delighted that Frank will be the next speaker in our Federation Presents series and will focus largely on the identity and aspirations of major digital firms and he’ll be asking some important questions. According to Frank: “These firms are no longer market participants. Rather, in their fields, they are market makers, able to exert regulatory control over the terms on which others can see goods and services. Moreover, they aspire to displace more government roles over time, replacing the logic of territorial sovereignty with functional sovereignty. In functional arenas from room-letting, to transportations to commerce, persons will increasingly be subject to corporate rather than democratic control”.
We believe that this is a really important shift that’s happening in society now and we’d love you to join us to hear Frank talk. You can book your tickets here and as always we look forward to seeing you in Fed.
