Metropolitics

We Are From Nairobi (#panthershit): Black Power Spatial Imaginaries in Silicon Valley

Kimberley S. Johnson — 2023-10-17T05:00:00Z

East Palo Alto's Black, Latiné and Pacific Islander residents deploy #panthershit—a Black Power spatial imaginary as a means of resisting the gentrification and displacement triggered by Silicon Valley's tech industry, thereby reclaiming a “right to their city” based on a recognition of the deep roots of past political activism and organizing that emerged during the city's Black Power era.
---- Series: Black Power and Black Self-Determination in a New Time and New Spaces Using the hashtag

- From the Field / Black Power, Black politics, Silicon Valley, tech sector, Big Tech, California, Northern California, United States, East Palo Alto

Digital Technology and the City: New Forms of Urban Segregation in Cape Town?

Julien Migozzi & translated by Oliver Waine — 2023-06-23T05:00:00Z

In the age of platform capitalism, how is digital technology reconfiguring real-estate markets and access to housing? In Cape Town, South Africa, credit scoring—a form of selection based on financial behavior—has become the norm in this regard, contributing to the reappearance of apartheid-era segregation.
“We don't take tenants under 622”: the response from Ganief, a real-estate agent in Cape Town, is swift. In order to obtain a lease in International Housing Solutions' housing portfolio, a

- From the Field / real estate, apartheid, digital city, inequalities, tech sector, Cape Town, financialization, tech economy, technology, Africa, South Africa

Navigating Jefes Fantasmas in New York City's Urban Platform Economy

Jackson Todd — 2023-03-03T06:00:00Z

How has the “platform economy” altered urban life, infrastructure, and labor? Jackson Todd examines New York City's deliveristas and the coercive practices employed by food delivery applications. What is the future of labor rights in the new economy?
The logistics of the so-called platform economy have reshaped our cities and communities. Urbanites can now get everything from groceries, toiletries and pet supplies to prescription medications, flowers and fast food delivered to their doors in

- Essays / work, labor, tech economy, tech sector, new economy, precarity, New York, United States, trade unions, food

Can the New Economy Survive without Coffee Shops (and Their Wi‑Fi)?

Thomas R. Chung — 2021-09-21T05:00:00Z

Thomas R. Chung argues that coffee shops play an important role in the creative and tech sectors of the knowledge-based new economy, and shows how the pandemic has disrupted this important node in New York City's agglomeration economy.
---- Series: New York Dossier: The Food Industry Faces the Covid‑19 Pandemic The Covid‑19 pandemic hit close to home for many New Yorkers who depend on the hospitality industry, as dining out and drinking are integral parts of the social, cultural, and

- From the Field / coffee, food, food culture, coronavirus, Covid-19, pandemic, agglomeration economies, coffee shops, tech sector, knowledge-based economy, New York, United States, tech economy, creative industries, new economy

New York Tech Dossier: Insecure Frontier Jobs? Staying Relevant in New York's Tech Ecosystem

Max Papadantonakis — 2020-01-21T06:00:00Z

“Frontier” jobs in digital technologies promise lucrative career paths, but Max Papadantonakis's research suggests that these paths are insecure.
---- Series: New York Tech Dossier: The Dark Side of New York's Tech Economy In the past five years, New York has become one of a few cities in the US with a large concentration of highly paid “frontier” jobs. Frontier jobs involve producing, installing, maintaining and deploying new generations of digital technologies, and they have become

- Essays / tech economy, tech sector, Big Tech, information technology, United States, New York

New York Tech Dossier: The Declining Significance of Proximity in Venture Capital Investments

Joanna Dressel — 2020-01-14T06:00:00Z

Venture capital investment in New York City has increased over the last decade, contributing to the development of the tech industry in the city. However, New York–based venture capital firms (VCs) increasingly invest outside the city. Joanna Dressel examines the declining significance of geographic proximity between VCs and private companies and asks what this could mean for urban economic development and spatial inequality in the new economy.
---- Series: New York Tech Dossier: The Dark

- Essays / information technology, tech economy, Silicon Alley, tech sector, venture capital, United States, New York

New York Tech Dossier: “Innovation Districts” in New York: Contentious Geographies of Growth

Sharon Zukin — 2020-01-07T06:30:00Z

Sharon Zukin analyzes how city government in New York has supported concentrations of tech firms—“innovation districts”—and how communities have pushed back.
---- Series: New York Tech Dossier: The Dark Side of New York's Tech Economy Since the Great Recession of 2008, New York City has emerged among the biggest “startup ecosystems” in the world (Mulas and Gastelu-Iturri 2016; Startup Genome 2019). Public- and private-sector investment, growth in tech jobs, and agglomeration of companies and

- Essays / Big Tech, tech economy, tech sector, information technology, United States, New York, innovation, innovation districts