Metageographies of Urbanization

This project develops a critical evaluation of newly available forms of geospatial data (on population, land use and infrastructure, connectivity, and environmental transformation) in relation to the problematique of planetary urbanization.

This project develops a critical evaluation of newly available forms of geospatial data (on population, land use and infrastructure, connectivity, and environmental transformation) in relation to the problematique of planetary urbanization. Geospatial datasets and remotely sensed images have become ubiquitous in scholarly and public discussions of urbanization.  Building upon theories of planetary urbanization, this project evaluates the limits and potentials of remotely sensed data and other forms of geospatial information as a basis for mapping and understanding urbanization processes under modern capitalism. Against the prevalent trend towards cartographic positivism, in which such data are presented as neutral, photographic “captures” of ground conditions, our analysis reveals the hidden, pre-empirical interpretive assumptions that mediate the construction and visualization of geospatial data.  By critically interrogating geospatial data on the most commonly used indicators for mapping urban space—nighttime lights; population; land cover; and connectivity—the project casts doubt on the widely naturalized assumption that cities are bounded settlement units, and the concomitant understanding of urbanization as an expansion in the size and distribution of such units. The project proposes a new metageographical framework for visualizing the fabric of planetary urbanization, including through the theoretically reflexive application of geospatial data.