Curating Digital Lives - by Chen Liu (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book examines engagements of daily practices on different types of digital platforms and devices to present a local understanding of geographies of consumption in the digital age from a non-Western perspective and to understand the connections between local cultures and a...

Book Synopsis

Within a digital context in contemporary consumer societies, Curating Digital Lives: Consumer Cultures, Digital Platforms, and Everyday Practices draws on practice theories to explore Chinese urban residents' lived experiences of digital platforms in their ordinary lives, mapping digital geographies of consumption at micro scales. Using the conception of "curation," this book teases out the engagements of different types of digital platforms and devices within daily practices to understand the connections between local cultures and the global development of digital technologies. The empirical discussions in this book address how urban residents curate their digital geographies of consumption in various urban spaces on a daily basis, how urban consumers embrace and resist the digital cultures shaped by online platforms and the data these platforms produce, and the social and environmental impacts generated by the digitalization or platformization of consumption. Through these discussions, Chen Liu provides insights on digitalized and platform-mediated daily practices, including eating in/out, traveling, living with smart home technologies, buying and selling things, and using social media in urban China.

Review Quotes

Chen Liu's groundbreaking work delves deep into the intricate web of digitalization and its profound impact on everyday life in urban China. By meticulously examining how platforms penetrate daily routines--from food consumption to home renovations--Liu illuminates the transformation of consumption culture. Liu's masterful blend of empirical data and practice theories reveals consumers as 'cyborgs, ' seamlessly integrating digital technologies into their very essence. This book is an indispensable look into the nuanced geographies of digital consumption, underscoring its socioeconomic and cultural implications.

Traversing cultural studies, human geography, and sociology, Chen Liu provides insightful observations of urban Chinese society. Focusing on how digital technologies shape everyday life experiences in urban spaces, this book stands out as one of the pioneering titles to address societal changes in China from such a compelling perspective. It comes highly recommended for fellow scholars and students who are eager to study the digital impact on mediated urban space-making and the lived experiences therein.

About the Author

Chen Liu is associate professor of cultural geography in the School of Geography and Planning at Sun Yat-sen University.