Variegated Platform Urbanism: Social Credit and the City

The development of a digital social credit system in China has sparked debates around urban governance and citizenship performance. Although China’s social credit system is portrayed as a single technical system, the article offers a new perspective on digital social credit focused on geographical variegation. We analyze how variegation is manifested through use of multiple data streams and a diverse range of aims operationalized in various social credit systems at the municipal level. Social credit can be seen as part of algorithmic urban governance and an instrument of urban citizenship performance through scoring, ranking, incentives, and punishments. Analysis of social credit systems’ development in Chinese cities contributes to debates around the role of the urban Global East and evolution of digital and algorithmic governance in and beyond China.