  Urban analytics combines spatial analysis, statistics, computer science, and
urban planning to understand and shape city futures. While it promises better
policymaking insights, concerns exist around its epistemological scope and
impacts on privacy, ethics, and social control. This chapter reflects on the
history and trajectory of urban analytics as a scholarly and professional
discipline. In particular, it considers the direction in which this field is
going and whether it improves our collective and individual welfare. It first
introduces early theories, models, and deductive methods from which the field
originated before shifting toward induction. It then explores urban network
analytics that enrich traditional representations of spatial interaction and
structure. Next it discusses urban applications of spatiotemporal big data and
machine learning. Finally, it argues that privacy and ethical concerns are too
often ignored as ubiquitous monitoring and analytics can empower social
repression. It concludes with a call for a more critical urban analytics that
recognizes its epistemological limits, emphasizes human dignity, and learns
from and supports marginalized communities.
