A City is Not a Computer by Shannon Mattern: book review

A City is Not a Computer: Other Urban Intelligences (2021) is about cities in general, rather than any particular city.

The author admits to being disappointed by computational, algorithmic, data-driven technology to design cities, to plan urban areas, to map out how we live: ‘I’m annoyed by its elasticity, ubiquity, and deceptiveness – and its sullying association with real estate development, “technosolutionism” and neoliberalism.’ This is why she examines local and indigenous intelligence and knowledge over ‘smart tech.’

The author divides the book into four sections: 1) City Console – the limitations of cybernetic management, 2) a City is not a Computer – a review of other forms of urban intelligence, 3) Public Knowledge – the knowledge and social infrastructure of public libraries, and 4) Maintenance Codes – the importance of invisible, situational knowledge.

Digitalization dashboards and data intermediaries are necessary, but she questions the limited focus on cultural and critical information literacy. The coronavirus pandemic demonstrated not only tihe importance of virtual spaces, and equitable access to data and information, but also the need to sustain communal ties, particularly physical ties.

I like Shannon Mattern’s emphasis on libraries as social infrastructure and urban intelligence. I like her thoughts on constituting more diverse, open, inclusive urban forms. I like her imagining: ‘Imagine if we cultivated urban rootstock that prioritizes environmental, racial, and digital justice over efficiency … blending computational logics with feral intelligences, sensory experiences, and local knowledge.’

And I like her use of T. S. Eliot’s 1934 poem The Rock,

Where is the Life we have lost in living?

Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?

Where is the knowledge we have lost in the information?

But, I don’t like the cover.

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MARTINA NICOLLS

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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