Images of the City in the Making: Participatory Mapping, Dynamic Data Processing and Collective Knowledge Cover Image

Images of the City in the Making: Participatory Mapping, Dynamic Data Processing and Collective Knowledge
Images of the City in the Making: Participatory Mapping, Dynamic Data Processing and Collective Knowledge

Author(s): Anna Nacher
Subject(s): Cultural Essay, Political Essay, Societal Essay
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
Keywords: geomedia; urban computing; participatory mapping; data-driven activism; Ushahidi; Crowdmap

Summary/Abstract: The article focuses on the practices relevant for digital mapping based on dynamic data processing and GIS. I argue that participatory mapping can be seen as a form of data driven activism and as such it is first and foremost the example of the collective knowledge. Hence, the primary function of the images (e.g. maps) produced in the process is not so much the representation of the city as rather it is the role they play in the dynamic operations of knowledge production on a grassroots level. Given that the computing technology and data processing saturate the social relations of the contemporary urban environments to the considerable extent, certain shift in the scope of analysis is required: the focus on how the images emerge and how they act in the world seems to be more relevant than the traditional analysis of the city’s visual representation.

  • Issue Year: 18/2013
  • Issue No: 4
  • Page Range: 287-300
  • Page Count: 14
  • Language: English