The Digital Growth Machine: Urban Change and the Ideology of Technology

• Published in: Annals of the American Association of Geographers Vol. 112; no. 8; pp. 2248 - 2265
• Main Authors: Rosen, Jovanna, Alvarez León, Luis F.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington Routledge 11.11.2022; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Accumulation; Capital formation; Capitalism; Cities; ciudades inteligentes; digital economy; digital platforms; Dynamics; Economic systems; economía digital; Growth; growth machine; intensificación de la tierra urbana; Land; Land development; máquina del crecimiento; plataformas digitales; Profit; smart cities; Technology; tecnología; Urban areas; Urban development; Urban growth; urban land intensification; Urban sprawl; Urbanism; 城市土地集约化; 增长机器; 数字平台; 数字经济; 智慧城市
• ISSN: 2469-4452; 2469-4460
• DOI: 10.1080/24694452.2022.2052008

Technology sector-led urban growth combines digital accumulation and urban accumulation dynamics to transform urban growth processes and outcomes. Together, these forces create the digital growth machine: a potent urban growth variation that fosters four related capital accumulation avenues that enable and support its activities. First, the digital growth machine extends long-standing land development and industrial attraction strategies to promote urban growth and increase exchange values. Second, it develops new possibilities for capturing land-related profit beyond traditional land development and intensification strategies. Third, it supports new opportunities for intermediaries to emerge and profit. Fourth, it creates new digital renderings of the city that affect land-related value and perceptions of place. With these processes, the digital growth machine simultaneously furthers dynamics of elite control over land that have become deeply entrenched in cities under capitalism, while qualitatively transforming urban life and the role of cities and land in this economic system.