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Urban analytics: History, trajectory and critique

In: Handbook of Spatial Analysis in the Social Sciences

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  • Geoff Boeing
  • Michael Batty
  • Shan Jiang
  • Lisa Schweitzer

Abstract

Urban analytics combines spatial analysis, statistics, computer science, and urban planning to understand and shape city futures. While it promises better policymaking insights, concerns exist around its epistemological scope and impacts on privacy, ethics, and social control. This chapter reflects on the history and trajectory of urban analytics as a scholarly and professional discipline. In particular, it considers the direction in which this field is going and whether it improves our collective and individual welfare. It first introduces early theories, models, and deductive methods from which the field originated before shifting toward induction. It then explores urban network analytics that enrich traditional representations of spatial interaction and structure. Next it discusses urban applications of spatiotemporal big data and machine learning. Finally, it argues that privacy and ethical concerns are too often ignored as ubiquitous monitoring and analytics can empower social repression. It concludes with a call for a more critical urban analytics that recognizes its epistemological limits, emphasizes human dignity, and learns from and supports marginalized communities.

Suggested Citation

  • Geoff Boeing & Michael Batty & Shan Jiang & Lisa Schweitzer, 2022. "Urban analytics: History, trajectory and critique," Chapters, in: Sergio J. Rey & Rachel S. Franklin (ed.), Handbook of Spatial Analysis in the Social Sciences, chapter 30, pages 503-516, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    • Handle: RePEc:elg:eechap:19110_30
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Lisa A. Schweitzer & Nader Afzalan, 2017. "09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0: Four Reasons Why AICP Needs an Open Data Ethic," Journal of the American Planning Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 83(2), pages 161-167, April.
    2. Giovanni Bonaccorsi & Francesco Pierri & Matteo Cinelli & Andrea Flori & Alessandro Galeazzi & Francesco Porcelli & Ana Lucia Schmidt & Carlo Michele Valensise & Antonio Scala & Walter Quattrociocchi , 2020. "Economic and social consequences of human mobility restrictions under COVID-19," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 117(27), pages 15530-15535, July.
    3. Qi Wang & Nolan Edward Phillips & Mario L. Small & Robert J. Sampson, 2018. "Urban mobility and neighborhood isolation in America’s 50 largest cities," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 115(30), pages 7735-7740, July.
    4. Geoff Boeing, 2020. "Planarity and street network representation in urban form analysis," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 47(5), pages 855-869, June.
    5. Paul Waddell, 2011. "Integrated Land Use and Transportation Planning and Modelling: Addressing Challenges in Research and Practice," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(2), pages 209-229.
    6. Geoff Boeing, 2020. "Online rental housing market representation and the digital reproduction of urban inequality," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(2), pages 449-468, March.
    7. , 2019. "A roundtable discussion: Defining urban data science," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 46(9), pages 1756-1768, November.
    8. Lisa Schweitzer, 2014. "Planning and Social Media: A Case Study of Public Transit and Stigma on Twitter," Journal of the American Planning Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 80(3), pages 218-238, July.
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    Cited by:

    1. Winston Yap & Jiat-Hwee Chang & Filip Biljecki, 2023. "Incorporating networks in semantic understanding of streetscapes: Contextualising active mobility decisions," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 50(6), pages 1416-1437, July.
    2. Laura Alessandretti & Luis Guillermo Natera Orozco & Meead Saberi & Michael Szell & Federico Battiston, 2023. "Multimodal urban mobility and multilayer transport networks," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 50(8), pages 2038-2070, October.

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