Encoding Place: The Politics of Mobile Location Technologies

Research output: Chapter in Book / Conference PaperChapterpeer-review

Abstract

Technologies of location for cellular mobiles have been in development for some years, since at least the late 1990s. Mobile media are now awash with various kinds of location technologies that have greatly expanded earlier conceptions of how place could be constructed, capitalized on, and mobilized through personal, portable technologies. As well as the location technologies developed by cell phone companies and carriers, we have also seen the rapid development of Bluetooth, whether in advertising or user file sharing; satellite navigation (sat nav) technologies; geoweb applications (Google Earth and Google Maps); the marshalling of location in mixed and alternative reality mobile gaming; finding of friends, intimates, and new contacts with mobile social software; annotation, photographing, filming, recording and mark-up of locales through mobile Internet applications; smartphone apps that take advantage of the possibilities of location technologies. These location technologies are now a vitally important part of the relations between place and mobile technologies, and are now receiving overdue attention and theorization-posing a double-task for such research, and for this chapter also.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationMobile Technology and Place
PublisherTaylor & Francis
Pages198-212
Number of pages15
ISBN (Electronic)9781136463358
ISBN (Print)9780415889551
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2013
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2012 Taylor & Francis.

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