01 / Reading Guide
Reading Guide
Who this book is for
For students examining how digital technologies reorganise everyday spaces and social relations. The book treats data as produced within institutions, markets and practices rather than as a neutral record waiting to be analysed. Its accessible examples support cultural and social geography, with a political argument that should be compared with other accounts.
Prerequisites
An introductory human geography or media studies course helps. No programming or GIS software is required. Be ready to trace who collects, classifies, owns and uses data in an ordinary digital service.
What it covers
Five main chapters discuss life with big data, the value of personal data, everyday resistance, the data spectacle and collective alternatives. Examples range from navigational and fitness technologies to activist practices. Historical discussion challenges the idea that each new technology creates wholly unprecedented problems. The focus is power and lived experience, not a technical manual for running geospatial algorithms.
How to use it
Choose a routine activity such as travelling or exercising and draw its data pathway from person to device, platform and downstream user. Identify what becomes measurable, what is inferred and what disappears. Compare the platform’s stated benefits with how different people experience its classifications. Develop two possible interventions, one individual and one collective, and explain their costs and limits. Test the book’s interpretation against a counterexample rather than assuming every digital practice has the same political effect.
Edition and sources
Pluto lists paperback publication in December 2021; the electronic edition carries copyright 2022, which is recorded separately. The stated ISBN identifies the paperback. The publisher-authorised complete JSTOR edition is free, with CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 chapter notices. Technology examples belong to their historical setting, so current product features and data policies need independent checking. Official complete reading route.
