What operating system does your city run on? This is the question a bunch of urbanists from around the world were asked to respond to in a book collection called ‘How to Run a City Like Amazon, and Other Fables’.
The idea behind the book is to ask what would it be like to live in a city administered using the business model of Amazon (or Apple, IKEA, Pornhub, Spotify, Tinder, Uber, and more), or a city where critical public services are delivered by these companies?
With 44 contributing authors and 38 chapters, the book playfully combines speculative fiction and analysis of 38 different business models and practices when applied to running our cities of the future. The book was edited by Mark Graham, Rob Kitchin, Shannon Mattern and Joe Shaw.
My story - my first piece of speculative fiction! - can be read below. The full collection can be found here.