Discovering Urban Citizenship in the Surveillance Society

Cities and urban spaces around the world are changing rapidly from their origins in the industrialising world to a post-industrial, hard-wired landscape. A further embellishment is the advent of mobile media technologies supported by both existing and new communications and computing technology which claim to put the urban dweller at the heart of a new, informed and 'liberated' seat of participatory urban governance. This networked, sensor-enabled society permits flows of information in a multitude of directions, ostensibly empowering the citizenry through 'smart' installations such as 'talking bus stops' detailing services, delays, transport interconnections and even weather conditions along desired routes.