Binary concrete. : When digital infrastructures shape the city ; Binaire béton : Quand les infrastructures numériques aménagent la ville

How is the city developed by and with digital technologies? To answer this question, the thesis analyses in a single movement the urban consequences of the information and physical infrastructures of digital technology. To this end, it mobilizes the methodological and analytical frameworks of Infrastructure Studies, the sociology of techniques and innovation and the sociology of public problems. From an empirical point of view, it proposes to take a step back from the major mediatized experiments of the "smart city" to study more diffuse, everyday transformations generated by digital technologies. It consists of two case studies: on the one hand, it follows a programme to develop connected services to improve the accessibility of a Paris Region transport network for people with reduced mobility, and on the other hand, it analyses the discreet establishment of numerous data centres in Plaine Commune, in the north of the Parisian metropolitan area, and the resulting local unrest. The fieldwork includes several participating observations, about 40 interviews, a press review and the analysis of internal documents of the organizations. The thesis shows how the logic of immediacy, of "real time", generally at the centre of the promises associated with the digital city, requires an increased availability of workers, data and servers. Thus, in the transport company, projects to improve passenger service via smartphones confront station agents with the dual imperative of the face-to-face relationship and the alerts of the connected device. The cartographic data on which connected services are based, often taken for granted, require organizations to invent new collaborations to ensure their production and maintenance. The servers necessary for the functioning of the digital society are accumulated, protected and maintained in data centres, imposing buildings that are geographically concentrated, disrupt the environments in which they are located, disconcert elected officials and disturb residents. The logic of real time ...