We’ll Build a Smart City: Digital Control over Children’s Mobility in Post-Soviet Cities

Abstract

The article examines the use of digital technologies in controlling children’s mobility in post-Soviet cities, addressing the issue of interrelationships among architecture, transportation system, and digital infrastructure as reflected in emerging practices of parental control. I investigate the contexts and ramifications of use of mobile gadgets, such as phones and wearables, in the conditions of urban environment where transportation services are poorly adapted to the needs of children. Drawing on interviews with parents who resort to controlling their children with wearable devices, I discuss the various gaps in the city’s digital infrastructure that are surfacing and becoming salient especially in the areas or neighborhoods characterized by lowrise residential housing and low population density. I argue that digital technologies create new spaces of visibility, transforming the everyday experience of children and deepening the spatial exclusion of children in the city.