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Digital Territories: Google Maps as a Political Technique in the Re-making of Urban Informality

Luque-Ayala, Andrés; Neves Maia, Flávia

Digital Territories: Google Maps as a Political Technique in the Re-making of Urban Informality Thumbnail


Authors

Flávia Neves Maia



Abstract

This article examines the mobilisation of spatial media technologies for digitally mapping informal settlements. It argues that digital mapping operates politically through a re-configuration of circulation, power, and territorial formations. Drawing on Stuart Elden’s understanding of territory, where space is ‘rendered’ as a political category, the coming together of digital mapping and the geoweb is uncovered as a political technique re-making territory through computational logics – operating as a calculative practice that, beyond simply representing space, is productive of the political spatiality that characterises territory. The article is based on an analysis of recent attempts by ICT corporates, particularly Google, to map favelas in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, critically examining the claim that digitally mapping informal settlements is a mechanism for socio-economic inclusion. Providing a counterargument to claims around the power of digital maps to incorporate favelas, provide recognition, legitimacy, visibility and citizenship, we discuss how in the interface between digital and urban worlds, territory as a political space is constructed through economic incorporation. In doing so, the article unpacks the spatial politics of digital and smart urbanisms and the emerging sovereignties of digital territories, particularly in the context of the tension between inclusion and exclusion experienced by those who live in informal settlements in cities in the global South.

Citation

Luque-Ayala, A., & Neves Maia, F. (2019). Digital Territories: Google Maps as a Political Technique in the Re-making of Urban Informality. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 37(3), 449-467. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263775818766069

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Feb 23, 2018
Online Publication Date Apr 13, 2018
Publication Date Jun 1, 2019
Deposit Date Mar 5, 2018
Publicly Available Date Mar 5, 2018
Journal Environment and Planning D: Society and Space
Print ISSN 0263-7758
Electronic ISSN 1472-3433
Publisher SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 37
Issue 3
Pages 449-467
DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/0263775818766069

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Copyright Statement
This article has been published under a CC-BY NC licence.








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