Doing Google Maps

Gentzel P, Wimmer J, Schlagowski R (2021)


Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2021

Journal

Book Volume: 7

Pages Range: 159-184

Issue: 2

DOI: 10.14361/dcs-2021-070208

Abstract

The  article  focuses  on  the  app  Google  Maps.  In  structural  terms,  Google Maps is committed to the production logic of platform or sur-veillance capitalism, insofar as the collected user data are utilised both to maintain Google Maps as a “cartographic infrastructure” (Plantin 2018)  and  to  predict  and  manipulate  behaviour  (Zuboff  2019).  On  the other hand, Google Maps presents an “image of the world” that, as a product of platform capitalism, also conveys specific notions that we depict by using the concepts of “networked images” or “operational images” (Farocki 2004; Rubinstein & Sluis 2008). First,  we  traced  the  development  of  Google  Maps  and  classified  it  using cartographic principles and criteria. Building on that, we per-formed two empirical studies. In a first step, we highlight findings on the  everyday  usage  practices  of  Google  Maps.  In  a  second  step,  we  characterise city maps produced by residents of a medium-sized city in Germany using an app developed by us. The project thus sheds light on the appropriation aspect of Google Maps and, by exploring the micro-level of individual usage practices, knowledge, and skills, provides an empirical  contribution  that  is  comparatively  rare  in  the  context  of  platform studies. Developing a map application furthermore enables us  to  show  that  the  selection  of  knowledge  and  its  spatial  anchoring  – the “image of the world”– follows a different logic when certain indi-viduals create a map for specific locations (e.g., multimodal routes to “hidden culture”).

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How to cite

APA:

Gentzel, P., Wimmer, J., & Schlagowski, R. (2021). Doing Google Maps. Digital Culture & Society, 7, 159-184. https://doi.org/10.14361/dcs-2021-070208

MLA:

Gentzel, Peter, Jeffrey Wimmer, and Ruben Schlagowski. "Doing Google Maps." Digital Culture & Society 7 (2021): 159-184.

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