{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,11]],"date-time":"2026-05-11T11:37:45Z","timestamp":1778499465079,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":14,"publisher":"SAGE Publications","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,7,1]],"date-time":"2020-07-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1593561600000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["journals.sagepub.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Big Data &amp; Society"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2020,7]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Everyday surveillance work is increasingly performed by non-human algorithms. These entities can be conceptualised as machinic fl\u00e2neurs that engage in distanciated fl\u00e2nerie: subjecting urban flows to a dispassionate, calculative and expansive gaze. This paper provides some theoretical reflections on the nascent forms of algorithmic practice materialising in two Australian cities, and some of their implications for urban relations and social justice. It looks at the idealisation \u2013 and operational black boxing \u2013 of automated watching programs, before considering their impacts on notions such as \u2018the right to the city\u2019 and \u2018the right to the face\u2019. It will argue that the turn to facial recognition software for the purposes of automating urban governance reconstitutes the meanings and phenomenology of the face. In particular, the fleshly and communicative physicality of the face is reduced to a measurable object that can be identified by a virtualised referent and then consequently tracked. Moreover, the asymmetrical and faceless nature of these machinic programs of recognition unsettles conventional notions of civil inattention and bodily sovereignty, and the prioritisation given to pattern recognition renders them amenable to ideas\/ideals from phrenology and physiognomy. In this way, algorithmic governance may generate not only forms of facial vulnerability and estrangement, but also facial artifice, where individuals come to develop tacit and artful ways of de-facing and re-facing in order to subvert the processes of recognition which leverage these modes of biopower. Thus, the datafication of urban governance gives rise to a dynamic biopolitics of the face.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/2053951720933989","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,8,14]],"date-time":"2020-08-14T11:27:58Z","timestamp":1597404478000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":27,"title":["The politics of algorithmic governance in the black box city"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"7","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0664-3694","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Gavin JD","family":"Smith","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Sociology, Australian National University, Canberra ACT, Australia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,8,14]]},"reference":[{"key":"bibr1-2053951720933989","volume-title":"Behavior in Public Places: Notes on the Social Organization of Gatherings","author":"Goffman E","year":"1963"},{"key":"bibr2-2053951720933989","volume-title":"Relations in Public","author":"Goffman E","year":"1972"},{"key":"bibr3-2053951720933989","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1068\/b3806com"},{"key":"bibr4-2053951720933989","volume-title":"Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers Through Society","author":"Latour B","year":"1987"},{"key":"bibr5-2053951720933989","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/07256868.2013.821722"},{"key":"bibr6-2053951720933989","volume-title":"Cutting Code: Software and Sociality","author":"Mackenzie A","year":"2006"},{"key":"bibr7-2053951720933989","volume-title":"The New Media of Surveillance","author":"Magnet S","year":"2009"},{"key":"bibr8-2053951720933989","volume-title":"The Maximum Surveillance Society: The Rise of CCTV","author":"Norris C","year":"1999"},{"key":"bibr9-2053951720933989","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.4159\/harvard.9780674736061"},{"key":"bibr10-2053951720933989","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/0162243918806061"},{"key":"bibr11-2053951720933989","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1215\/08992363-2020557"},{"key":"bibr12-2053951720933989","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.4324\/9780203519387"},{"key":"bibr13-2053951720933989","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/1357034X15623622"},{"issue":"2","key":"bibr14-2053951720933989","first-page":"275","volume":"57","author":"Smith GJD","year":"2017","journal-title":"The British Journal of Criminology"}],"container-title":["Big Data &amp; Society"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1177\/2053951720933989","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/full-xml\/10.1177\/2053951720933989","content-type":"application\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1177\/2053951720933989","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,28]],"date-time":"2026-04-28T12:58:00Z","timestamp":1777381080000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.1177\/2053951720933989"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2020,7]]},"references-count":14,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2020,7]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1177\/2053951720933989"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/2053951720933989","relation":{},"ISSN":["2053-9517","2053-9517"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2053-9517","type":"print"},{"value":"2053-9517","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2020,7]]},"article-number":"2053951720933989"}}