RCCHC "Science, Technology, Society and Culture" Talk Series 15 - “Building Roads into the Sky”: Shenzhen, the Greater Bay Area, and the Low-altitude Economy

This talk brings an interdisciplinary, cultural studies approach to the study of Shenzhen as a “core engine” city in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (the GBA). Through archival research, ethnographic fieldwork, and textual analysis, I examine the tensions and contradictions that have informed and emerged from the recent formation of the low-altitude economy, which aims to transform the airspace below 3000 meters into a digitized and value-generative economic resource. By probing the central role played by drones in this discursive and imaginary formation, I explore how technological agents partake in carving out future scenarios for Shenzhen, the GBA, and the nation. Conceptualizing Shenzhen as a media-infrastructure complex, I argue, is helpful in illuminating the multi-dimensional reconfiguration of the GBA through vertical, aerial, digital, and more-than-human means.