Geog
258 Digital Geographies (5) (I&S)
Sarah
Elwood
TTh
1:30-3:20, plus T or Th quiz section
From the use of Google’s MyMaps or geo-tagged Tweets
to coordinate street protests for democracy, to ‘check-in’ apps that alert when
us when a friend is nearby, to online or smart-phone citizen data collection
apps, making and using digital maps and geographic information is an increasing
part of everyday life in many parts of the world. This class explores the key
components, applications and societal impacts of contemporary geographic data
and technologies, including online mapping software, handheld geographic devices,
the geoweb, location-based services, crowdsourced spatial data sets, and open
source geographic technologies. You will develop hands-on experience using these forms of geographic information and technologies, and develop a framework for critically
assessing the digital geographies emerging through these new data, technologies,
and applications.
For our purposes this quarter, “digital geographies” are the social/spatial practices and
relationships produced through digital geographic data or technologies. For
example, the use of Google Earth imagery by human rights activists to support
court claims of genocide is a social/spatial
practice that uses digital geographic technologies. The disproportionate
production of multimedia geographic data with smart phones in wealthier
neighborhoods, regions, and countries, compared to text-based geographic data
(using SMS text messages) in poorer places is an example of a spatial/spatial relationship that
emerges through the use of digital geographic technologies. We will study how
digital geographies are produced through spatial data and geovisual
representations with new technologies; and through the use of these
technologies for protest/activism, recreation/socializing, community and
international development, citizen participation in government, citizen
science, surveillance/social control, and many other activities
