Summary: As contemporary cities become increasingly media dense environments, the mode of inhabiting urban space is changing. The growing use of geo-spatial devices and the availability of real-time location specific information favours new forms of micro co-ordination of social activity, but also the extension of surveillance via data-mining and aggregation. As networked interactions become an everyday dimension of negotiating contemporary public space, there is a pressing need to think about how this trajectory transforms the older power-geometries of the city. Drawing on a range of contemporary projects, this talk will examine the contemporary politics of ‘participation’ and will investigate how networked media might be utilised to facilitate ‘participatory public space’.
