Urban infrastructure reconfiguration and digital platforms: Who is in control?

Abstract

The literature on urban sustainability transitions has grown substantially over the last two decades. Recent debates have sought to position urban transition as an incremental process of reconfiguration informed by novel relationships between existing systems of provision and new infrastructural and governing arrangements. We extend these debates by exploring how digital platformisation of urban infrastructure is challenging the organisation and governance of existing urban systems. Bringing together literature on urban transitions with platform urbanism, we focus empirically on the rapid expansion of multiple digital mobility platforms in urban contexts. We ask: in what ways are multiple digital mobility platforms reconfiguring urban public transport systems and who is in control of this process? The paper makes two contributions. First, by deepening understanding of urban transition as multiple processes of reconfiguration. Second, contributing to debates on the governance of urban infrastructure transformation and who is shaping urban system reconfiguration and what implications this has for the control of urban public transport systems.