Alternative Mobility Futures Centre for Mobilities Research Lancaster University 9-11th January, 2004

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Alternative Mobility FuturesCentre for
Mobilities Research Lancaster University 9-11th
January, 2004

• Twin Towers, Amoy Gardens
• and Transport Choices
• Dr Stephen Little,Open University Business
  School,Milton Keynes Mk7 6AA.
• s.e.little_at_open.ac.uk
• full paper available at http//www.stephenelittl
  e.com
• see also http/www.geocities.com/tatra_tansport

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Background

• Hong Kong SAR 2nd
• highest broad-band usage
• first rate public transport
• Octopus smart card as de-facto alternate
  currency
• Amoy Gardens 35 storey
• high-rise block, 100 SARS
• cases, 230 people
• quarantined for 30 days

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Two Events

• 9/11 attacks shift understanding of co-presence
  and dual use of technology
• transport infrastructure become terrorist medium
• SARS shifts perception of risk of disease
• Hong Kong density facilitates this
• initial mis-recognition as bio-terrorism
• Propagation of terror and disease both reflect
  global mobilities
• mobility, facilitated by ICTs, become problematic
• these enabling technologies seen as both problem
  and solution

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Context

• Globalisation and mobility
• C19 internationalisation based on reliability
  steamship, electric telegraph, medical
  prophylaxis (Headrick,1981)
• C20 globalisation based on ICTs, rapid repeated
  exchange, new forms of adjacency
• Post Cold War narratives
• military-industrial complex generating new
  sub-national and transnational anxieties
• movement of populations, propagation of disease
• both already identified as C21 security risks by
  NIC (2000)
• Siberian drug resistant strains of TB in 1990s
  New York

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Recovery and Responses

• Uneven recovery of air travel
• industry already problems before 9/11
• economy measures included reduced cabin air
  circulation
• IATA view driven by economics
• East Asian post-SARS recovery driven by goods as
  much as people.
• Surveillance
• conditions and restrictions on air passengers
• biometric identification systems
• GPS requirement for US cell phones (pre-9/11)
• collective global tracking of SARS
• New International Relationships
• China joining European Galileo GPS system
• UK joining US network centric defense system

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Consequences and Legacies

• Pearl Harbor precursor of Pacific Century
• 9/11 and American Century
• www.newamericancentury.org
• Subsequent targetting of Muslim countries
• by both sides
• economic attacks on secular Islam
• tourism (Bali) and finance (Turkey)
• Afghanistan and Iraq
• nation state instantiations of an amorphous
  enemy
• Risk and uncertainty undermine reliability and
  predictability
• local and long distance travel choices
• shut-down and restriction on aviation
• avoidance of landmarks - Golden Gate Sydney
  Harbour Bridges

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Dread Factor

• Perrow (1984) provides and analysis of risk
  perception
• lack of control over the activity
• fatal consequences of a mishap
• high catastrophic potential
• reactions of dread
• inequitable distribution of risks and benefits
• belief that risks are increasing and are not
  easily reducible
• Perrow 1984 p326.

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Remaining Tensions and Questions

• Military or civil infrastructure?
• US Air Traffic control data now mirrored at
  Colorado Springs in real time
• Imperial origins of transport and communication
  infrastructures (Headrick, 1981)
• GPS and cruise missile diplomacy
• Reversibility of Surveillance
• Voicing the other - Al Jazeera
• selective use of dominant infrastructures - Al
  Qaeda
• Do ICTs promote substitution or permit mobility?
• dataveillance and surveillance society (Clark,
  1989)
• smart cards and ID cards
• the price of mobility - eternal surveillance?

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Conclusion the other digital divide?

• Military paradigm
• high tech weaponry and information warfare
• electronic countermeasures / broadcast propaganda
• cruise missile diplomacy
• Civil paradigm
• 1980s AI projects
• knowledge extraction
• assumption of ultimate superiority of high level
  abstract data.
• New paradigm
• bottom-up and networked response,
• feedback loop of systems theory and cybernetics
  (Beer, 1972)
• intentionality of those on the receiving end of
  policies and technologies