The term has been coined by the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, himself a “kinetic elite”, to describe a certain kind of population on the move, the new aristocrats of the mobile world, these who earn bonus points and airport privileges (like going faster through the customs) because also they travel extensively…
I have my students read excerpts of Stephen Graham and Simon Marvin, Splintered Urbanism: networked infrastructures, technological mobilities and the urban condition (London; New York: Routledge, 2001), a book which examines the territorial divides engendered by technological mobilities.
I wrote many times that examples like the $100 laptop express a consistent belief in technology and its inexorable spread. Surely, the chairman’s brother is the director of National Intelligence of the GWB administration (fact that prompts to question the underlying objectives of these green objects, hence the territoriality at play).
I also read in Courrier International that in Osaka, the homeless wanted to provide cellphone carriers with an address which was that of the park they slept in… because having a cellphone is essential to get a job. Taxi drivers commuting between Abu Dhabi to Dubai rely heavily on their cellphones. These people are not “kinetic elites”. But again we are talking about places where the infrastructure for roaming exists.
With non-profit organizations like NYCwireless which “advocates and enables the growth of free, public wireless Internet access in New York City and surrounding areas”, we may then hope a decline of territorial divides defined according to whom has access, better access or no access to the technologies of information and communication.
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4 Responses to “kinetic elite”?
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[...] I must be one of those ‘kinetic elitists’ described by Yasmine in an earlier post. I don’t like the word elitist a lot and I also haven’t received a lot of airport privileges yet. A desk, a chair and a power plug would already suffice while waiting for a plane. In the past two weeks I’ve traveled from Germany to Nice and further on to Paris and my suitcase is packed again and ready to leave with me to Milano, Italy in the early morning and further on to Erfurt in East Germany next week. [...]
[...] I’m looking forward to this do-tank, double-thinking my daughter surfing YouTube on her PSP, a conf call with Katrin Verclas from N-TEN last week on mobile appliance in Africa, the evolution evolution of GSM, UMTS, WLAN, Bluetooth, and WiMAX, from web 2.0 to mobile 2.0, sensuous gear, Negroponte’s $100 laptop for the world’s children education, the kinetic elite, global warming, sustainability, the Mobile Web in the Developing World, lift, aspiration tech, while listening to the ‘The Awakening‘ of Ursula Rucker (check the lyrics!) on 4 Hero’s -btw- excellent new ‘Play With The Changes‘ album. Announcements, augmented reality, club of amsterdam, do thank, ethnographics, Experience Design, Felix Bopp, girona, human experience, Humberto Schwab, immersed experience, innovation, lab, Laurence Desarzens, media lab, Mobile Culture, Mobile Lifestyle, Paul F.M.J. Verschure, ricardo baeza yates, social media, Trends, Ubiquitous Devices, Urban, usability, user experience, we mediaThese icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]
[...] kinetic elite ? Taxi drivers commuting between Abu Dhabi to Dubai rely heavily on their cellphones. These people are not kinetic elites . [...]
[...] But it’s such a prime example of Foucault’s argument that modern society is more and more about disciplining (and sorting) ourselves, becoming docile bodies within the system. It’s also a great illustration of all of this mobilities literature that I’ve been reading, right here in the real world; so much for the ivory tower! In particular, it demonstrates how identity is becoming tied up with speed, and how the “kinetic elite” (as Rem Koolhas has termed them) are moving ever faster and more smoothly while those of us who are not visibly elite (e.g., with children, wearing flip-flops, not carrying a briefcase) are slowed down in our travels. [...]