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Twin Towers, Amoy Gardens and Transport Choices

Alternative Mobility Futures Centre for Mobilities Research Lancaster University 9-11 th January, 2004. Twin Towers, Amoy Gardens and Transport Choices Dr Stephen Little, Open University Business School, Milton Keynes Mk7 6AA. s.e.little@open.ac.uk

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Twin Towers, Amoy Gardens and Transport Choices

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  1. 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@open.ac.uk full paper available at http://www.stephenelittle.com see also http:/www.geocities.com/tatra_tansport

  2. 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

  3. 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

  4. 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

  5. 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

  6. 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

  7. “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.

  8. 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?

  9. Conclusion: the other digital divide? • Military paradigm • high tech weaponry and information warfare • electronic countermeasures / broadcast propaganda • cruise missile diplomacy • Civil paradigm • 1980’s 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

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