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“In the smart-dusted wireless city, both landscapes and artifacts are specked with sensors to facilitate wayfinding and consumption.” Gabrys noticed the operating system of smart city, “Increasingly instant and automated, urban space circulates through the transitory and monitored circuits of web cameras, surveillance systems, timers, and traffic monitors” allow the city now to be “in telepathic communication” (2009, p. 58-59). In smart cities, machine is far more the assemblage of electronic components, in fact, it becomes the agent of telecommunication. Now is the age of autonomy. Cities are sentient: through different airwaves, cities can perceive what happened at every corner whether visible or invisible. This kind of  perception is without the direct order or command from human but follows its own logic, which is we called artificial intelligence. AI is not a simple simulation of human body, the standard of which is speaking or walking like human. AI is the agent of thinking, and in broad meaning, smart city is already having the subjectivity and achieved the autonomy even not totally. The communication among machines finally reaches human and affect our behavior. Based on GPS, real-time tracking system permeates city life such as uber/Didi and food delivery. In China, the popularity of these two services leads to the widespread of the real-time tracking system, which makes cities have agency to communicate with us. Here, the food delivery network will be case to analyze.

 

Tracking system of food delivery network has the subjectivity in the communication among platform, deliverymen and consumers. Here is an article demonstrating how the tracking system worked during covid-19 (link is here). First the surveillance of platform is on the real-time health of deliverymen to ensure the safety during the pandemic. Every deliveryman has to upload their health data before they deliver the food. Though it is not totally automated, it provides a future sight of sensor application in cities. The other tracking system is more common. Based on GPS on our telephones, the distance between deliverymen and consumers would be shown in real-time. It may looks only a recording function, however, both consumers and deliverymen believe the data and think this delivery within the scale data provides. In other words, people negatively rely on the sensor. From this perspective, one could say the computer is the agent. Furthermore, the policy of platform is on the basis of this recording system. For example, the wage deliverymen earn is dependent on the situation if they can deliver on time. And the recording system is the regulator. In this case, computing system and sensor are leading citizens to behave at some level. Also, the system would estimate the arriving time dynamically, which definitely shows the agency of computer and data system. This estimation is explicitly the representative of agency. The role it plays is very active: the estimation does affects citizens’ mental state — impatience or happiness — and sometimes affects their behavior such as calling deliverymen or complaining to the platform. In short, the food delivery network as an infrastructure at least in Chinese cities, this kind of agency can be regarded as part of city.

There is a popular misrecognition of modern city: city is a computer. Algorithm such as big data and network would bring regulation, order and innovation to the city and form the city life. In other words, city is an object that can be totally coded. Technology does found a solid basis of city planning. The concept of “smart city”, which refers to the automation of city that should be achieved by complex algorithm, codes and smart technology, announced the importance of technology and the possibility of technological regulation. There is a video introducing the digitization of Hangzhou from public health to traffic congestion (link is here). One specific example is the use of health ID barcodes based on Alibaba cloud to track the spread of covid-19. The digitized city-management system is also applied in other areas such as public resources, municipal services, tourism, etc. Government use information technology to regulate and improve citizens’ life, from another perspective, technology helps to foster a better relationship between government and citizen communities. Hangzhou is not the only case, of course. Smart city is all around the globe. Internet of things is now the infrastructure of a city that connects everything including buildings, citizens, transportation and mass media. However, this does not mean that cities can be totally arranged by technological machine. Though the example of health ID barcodes showed the result of algorithm that citizens’ routines are arranged by programming, interpersonal communication can never be the mere data. Health ID barcodes can decided where you can go or cannot go, but it can never prevent the communication between two persons. Algorithm can predict the possible behavior of a community, but it is still a kind of fiction. Also, it can never reach our brain to calculate our emotions and minds. Data is cold, but human is not.

 

City is an organic ecosystem in which both human and technology are communicated and intertwined. Technology provides the space for human performance and nearly forms everything that human use to satisfy their daily needs. From infrastructure like internet and cable to specific products like smartphone and digital media, in the modern cities, communication is set up on this bridge of technology. However, the subjectivity of citizens, or in other words, their agency cannot be ignored. Citizens do have their freedom to decide which channel they want to access, who they want to contact and when they will act. There is no denying that the restriction of technology does not work, for instance, people cannot talk with someone through whatsapp when internet breaks down, however, the procedure of app cannot force you to talk with someone for a certain long time with your enthusiasm. Human agency is not the data that can be written into codes. Therefore, as long as city is somewhere human live, whatever the smart technology is, it never becomes a computer but a mixture with flesh and data.

Instead of thinking cable and internet as media infrastructures, labour is a vital element in media infrastructure. Edwards stated that “not only hardware but organization… are required for a system to be an infrastructure” (2003, p. 187). More explicitly, “infrastructure shapes and is shaped by the conventions of a community of practices” (Star, 2012, p. 381). And this is what Parks and Starosielski called “relationality”. And labour, as Parks and Starosielski argued, provides support, repair and maintenance of a systematic infrastructure, which is to say, the operation of media infrastructure depends on the social practices of labour (2015, p. 12). In the case of mobile food delivery network, the daily routine of deliverymen is a kind of social practice that links different groups including staffs working for the platform, food store owners, consumers, and themselves into a community or in another word, social organization. Ruhleder and Star have defined several characteristics of infrastructure and some of them would be used in the analysis.

The first characteristic of infrastructure is embeddedness. The work of deliverymen is definitely in the mobile food delivery network and cannot be distinguished. Within the whole media infrastructure, it is unnecessary to distinguish deliverymen with other groups since they are coordinated to operate in the infrastructure. In fact, if putting it into a larger scale, deliverymen also belong to different social, economic and political relationship. There is an article illustrating the situation of deliverymen in the area of political economy (link is here). There are three kinds of delivery mode: the platforms hire men to deliver food; the platform coordinate with logistics companies and the latter hire deliverymen; the last modes is “crowdsourcing” that free labour picks up the delivery work. The former two fit the labour law and receive the surveillance of government while the latter is in the blank area of Chinese labour law. The complex relationship with larger political economy is represented by the social practices of deliverymen.

Transparency is another feature in the definition of infrastructure. In the case of mobile food delivery network, deliverymen is a special being. It is visible, of course, since all consumers would receive their food from deliverymen, however, they are transparent to use. There is no step for consumers to do for deliverymen, it is automatic in consumers’ eyes. And only the situation of breaking down, being late as an example, would consumers give attention onto them.

The transparency comes from the naturalization of participation. People are members within the system of infrastructure rather than strangers thus they overlook the infrastructure by seeing it as natural. Receiving food from deliverymen is a natural process for delivery app users. There is no consideration and thinking to be needed in terms of deliverymen. People focus on picking restaurants and particular food rather than deliverymen. In fact, the work of deliverymen is hidden by the estimating time for arriving. They become the statistics and lose the recognition from consumers. And the fact that consumers cannot choose deliverymen just promotes the naturalization.

The reason for the forced deviation of the city poor from the city public space, which is basically the street here, is usually attributed to the aesthetic of the modern cities and city diseases such as congestion. “A consuming concern with bringing the panoramas of their cities and also their pavements up to what they believed to be world aesthetic standards” is adopted by officialdom, aiming for “attracting the eye of the investor, along with his/her capital” (Sollinger, 2013, p. 16). More investments, higher economy, that is the logic of officialdom. For that reason, these city managers are “putting a very high premium upon ‘modernizing’ and ‘beautifying’ its visage” to fit to the city aesthetic standards. And in this case, the city poor has been forcedly sacrificed. In addition, the city disease in terms of the congestion is also the reason for limiting the function of pavements and streets. Whether the former or the latter, the the appeal to returning the right to use the streets to the city poor is on schedule, but the reason behind may be rooted more deeply.

A Chinese documentary recording the combat between chengguan (city managers) and a family who owned a street stall is in a hot discussion (link is here). The family includes a 70-year-old guy, his wife who had a cancer, disabled son and the young granddaughter who is in senior school. They occupied a large area of the street, selling from fruits to clothes to earn a living. This behavior is learned by those shop owners, Though they have their stores, they also occupy the street to sore their goods and they announced they will not move the goods until the family is moved. There are a lot of combats between them and chengguan, and they insist in taking actions against chengguan such as lying down on the middle of the road with a traffic. The family is so aggressive and so sympathetic. In the end, chengguan seek a store for them to make a living. Both the supporters of family and the chengguan exist. For the former, they concentrated on the difficulties of the peripheral groups, pointing out the ridiculousness of the so-called “beautifying the city”, while the latter sees the conflict between the stall owners and other citizens. The reason for their support is the harm to their rights that the stall owners bring to them. Congestion due to their occupation does harm to their rights to use the streets. It is a big city disease and there is no solution. Because of the city development, more and more migrants rush to the cities and lead the cities to extremely dense. It is not merely the problem of public transportation infrastructure or the wrong city planning, in fact, the cities are overloaded. In addition, street stalls are often accused by citizens of making the environment dirty, full of trash, loud voice and unpleasant smell. Considering the Community gates are often the locations of those stalls, this does disturb other citizens. Moreover, one situation does exist. Even if stores can be provided to those stall owners, they refuse to move in because they do not have to pay the rent and there is no greater flow of people than intersections and community gates. Consequently, the contradictions are irreconcilable.

Inequality would be at least one of the reasons. The inequality between the rural area and cities caused the urban overload. The inequality made periphery groups less educated and no culture, which forces them on the one hand, to struggle for a living with every effort, while on the other, less care about others’ rights out of their families. The protection of right of the poor to the city should be started by diminishing inequality, yet it might never be solved.

Not a few scholars noticed urban planners’ perception of hostile relationship between street food and modernization of cities. Bluestone traced the historical policies about regulating pushcart markets in NYC, pointing out the traditional view that pushcarts are evil as it caused the neighborhood deterioration and street congestion (1991). The pushcart market is a stain on the modernity because of its representation of working class and the poor people. It also occupies the roads thus aggravating the traffic problem. Though the sight in northern side, this consideration is also in China where modernization is the national goal. In Shanghai, now you can hardly find pushcarts on the streets, instead, enclosed markets or officially regulated open-air markets steadily become the social pattern of daily life. Here is a news about the previous street food market at Zhangjianggaoke underground station (link is here). The street food market was complained by students and workers because of its dirty, smell and occupation of the road, though these stalls are the main source of those people’s breakfast. Later, government banned the market. Even the reason of all these modern cities whether in North or South; West or East that the cleaning, tidy look of a city is one symbol of successful modernization. The life of the poor is sacrificed to a bigger blueprint in which they actually and should be involved in but are hidden.  

 

On the other hand, some scholars asked, is street market really the intervention of city development? Ray in his article stated that street market is part of the social infrastructure and the livelihood rather than the representation of backwardness (2020). Pacetta mentioned “there is a strong nostalgic attachment on the part of many of our citizens for these markets” and this nostalgia “tends to predominate over the complaints in contemporary views of street peddlers” (Bluestone, 1991, p. 89). In the case of Zhangjianggaoke, replacing those illegal street stalls, the government licensed a few street stalls and regulated the ingredients supply. These stalls are only permitted to set in the park in order to avoid the aggravation of congestion. In fact, the similar policy is universal in Chinese cities. The official project of breakfast pushcarts can be found in many cities that individuals can apply to the government. These pushcarts are licensed in food safety and street occupation. Yet illegal pushcarts still exist since not every individual has the knowledge and channel to apply for the license. And that would be the problem need to solve.

 

All in all, we can see the possibility to balance street markets and modernity though the current solution may not be fully mature. But that is the hint to us to consider the real status of street market in social life and try to put it into the scope of city planning, I mean, in a positive way. The question, how long will it take?

 

 

The tradition of culinary nostalgia continues today, in “old Shanghai” theme restaurants that link city residents to an image of Shanghai’s former glory, while the city itself is transformed into a global destination of the future (Swislocki, 2008, p. 2). The establishment of 1192 “Old Shanghai” Street is the place to recall a nostalgia especially among the old-age groups. Setting designed in an old Shanghai style and filled with local restaurants such as Dahuchun, Taikang and Xiaoshaoxing, ranging from formal dinner to pastries, 1192 street blurred time and space, appeal to Chinese, especially the old-age groups who have really witnessed the former glory.

The restaurants defined as authentic (Zhengzong) tastes in 1192 street are the childhood memories of the old. Dahuchun, opened in 1932, the oldest extant local restaurant famous for its traditional Pan fried bun is one example. Asking a Shanghailander where to eat Pan fried bun, the answer will be “Dahuchun”. Different with bun in other regions like Jiangsu, an authentic Shanghai pan fried bun should be made by leaven dough, sweet pork and no soup included. From 1932 to 2020, the huge change of Shanghai city erased not only the scenery but the lifestyle, and the old-age groups are unable to follow up. Yet there has been something left: food. So food-orientated as Chinese, this traditional taste really comforts people, recalling their connections with the past, the most familiar Shanghai that they have ever experienced. In this street, when they eat Pan fried bun, it is far more than a tasty bun, but a proof of their existence in this city and a means of maintain their local social identity. Because the remain of traditional Shanghai weidao is the symbol of old memory, within which a collective sentiment has generated, thus the old strengthen their relationship with Shanghai despite it runs forward without turning round.

In spite of the very efforts to rebuild the image of “Old Shanghai”, the setting is too artificial and more important, those old extant restaurants have to make changes to fit new fashionable tastes. As Swislocki stated, nostalgia can be a commercial strategy for restaurateurs (2008). To make a business success is to make profits as many as possible from the most potential consumers, among whom old-age groups are certainly excluded. New dishes have to be put out. For instance, Dahuchun, except for the traditional pork and crab bun, the trendy taste like rattan pepper shrimp bun is very popular among young generations. For the old, their pure memory has not existed any more, instead they need to seek the familiar elements in the mixture of the old and the new. While for the young generations, their culinary nostalgia is based on the imagination of Old Shanghai, which is from history textbook, TV series and films, and they may be even unable to recognize the old elements from mixture. From this sense, culinary nostalgia is not a pure yearning of the past but a connection between self and city even if the objects of nostalgia are the products of new days.

(links are on the pictures)