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Abstract
This article aims to understand contemporary forms of “digital work” and how this is imagined in visionary documents in the context of smart urbanism. Specifically, we argue for an infrastructural perspective on smart urbanism to highlight (1) how such visionary documents organize society in specific ways and (2) how this organization is rooted in work that is imagined as being mainly informational and disembodied. Through an analysis of Singapore’s recent Smart Nation initiative, we make a case for the inclusion of the actual human and embodied work that constitutes visions of smart urbanism. This work comprises both the physical construction and maintenance of digital infrastructure and the monitoring of these infrastructures and the interpretation of data on which they run. Finally, we show how an infrastructural inversion of smart urban initiatives is capable of highlighting these invisibilities of human work, specifically by drawing on the mundanity, temporality, and materiality of work that is considered digital.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Bernadette Gostelow and Gregory Clancey for their input on earlier drafts of this article. We are also indebted to the valuable input and advice of two anonymous reviewers.
Notes
1 “The World’s Cities in 2016.” Data booklet. United Nations. www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/publications/pdf/urbanization/the_worlds_cities_in_2016_data_booklet.pdf. Accessed on 3 February 2019.
2 For the 2017 number of government workers, see “Government Headcount,” data.gov.sg/dataset/government-headcount?resource_id = cbcc128f-081d-4a03-8970-9bac1be13a5d. Accessed on 19 January 2019.
3 As of 18 August 2016, IDA and MDA have been restructured into the Info-Communications Media Development Authority (IMDA), a statuary board of the government under the Ministry of Communication and Information.
4 See “Transcript of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s speech at Smart Nation launch on 24 November.” Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore. 24 November 2014. www.pmo.gov.sg/newsroom/transcript-prime-minister-lee-hsien-loongs-speech-smart-nation-launch-24-november.
5 See “Computational Thinking and Making.” Infocomm Media Development Authority. www2.imda.gov.sg/for-community/digital-readiness/Computational-Thinking-and-Making. Accessed on 12 November 2018.
6 SkillsFuture, www.skillsfuture.sg/. Accessed on 21 September 2018.
7 We must emphasize that our aim here is not to unfairly critique Singapore’s Smart Nation nor to single it out. Our later comparisons will show that we draw on Smart Nation as an instance of a cutting-edge vision of smart, macro-level infrastructure of the future.
8 “National Day Rally.” Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore. 20 August 2017. www.pmo.gov.sg/Newsroom/national-day-rally-2017.
9 “Careers at GovTech.” GovTech Singapore. govtech.taleo.net/careersection/govtech_external/jobsearch.ftl#.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Thijs Willems
Thijs Willems is an organizational ethnographer interested in the daily work of people in complex and technological organizations, as well as how they experience their work in the broader organizational context. In his work, he usually draws on ethnographic material analyzed via practice and process theories. He currently works under the research program Future of the Digital Economy and Digital Societies. For this, he focuses on the relationships between (digital) technologies and embodied work, how both shape and define each other, and how that effects knowledge and skills.
Connor Graham
Connor Graham is a senior lecturer at Tembusu College and a research fellow at the Asia Research Institute, both at the National University of Singapore. His teaching and research center on science, technology, and society (STS), with a particular focus on Internet technologies and their relation to life and death. His recent work has been examining the evolution and features of Internet and smart technologies and initiatives in Southeast Asia.