The Map in the Machine : Charting the Spatial Architecture of Digital Capitalism / Luis F. Alvarez Leon.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Alvarez León, Luis F., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mobile geographic information systems.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (224 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2024]

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Summary:

Digital technologies have changed how we shop, work, play, and communicate, reshaping our societies and economies. To understand digital capitalism, we need to grasp how advances in geospatial technologies underpin the construction, operation, and refinement of markets for digital goods and services. In The Map in the Machine, Luis F. Alvarez Leon examines these advances, from MapQuest and Google Maps to the rise of IP geolocation, ridesharing, and a new Earth Observation satellite ecosystem. He develops a geographical theory of digital capitalism centered on the processes of location, valuation, and marketization to provide a new vantage point from which to better understand, and intervene in, the dominant techno-economic paradigm of our time. By centering the spatiality of digital capitalism, Alvarez Leon shows how this system is the product not of seemingly intangible information clouds but rather of a vast array of technologies, practices, and infrastructures deeply rooted in place, mediated by geography, and open to contestation and change.

Contents:

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

List of Illustrations and Table

Acknowledgments

1. Introduction

2. Assembling the Base Map: From MapQuest to Google Street View

3. Location, Geolocation, Allocation

4. Eyes in the Sky and the Digital Planet

5. People, Platforms, and Robots on the Move

Conclusion: The Spatial Architecture of Digital Capitalism and the Power of Place

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780520389335

0520389336

OCLC:

1428264299