Thinking Big Data in Geography - by Jim Thatcher & Andrew Shears & Josef Eckert (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Thinking Big Data in Geography offers a practical state-of-the-field overview of big data as both a means and an object of research, with essays from prominent and emerging scholars such as Rob Kitchin, Renee Sieber, and Mark Graham. Part 1 explores how the advent of geoweb technologies and big data sets has influenced some of geography's major subdisciplines: urban politics and political economy, human-environment interactions, and geographic information sciences. Part 2 addresses how the geographic study of big data has implications for other disciplinary fields, notably the digital humanities and the study of social justice. The volume concludes with theoretical applications of the geoweb and big data as they pertain to society as a whole, examining the ways in which user-generated data come into the world and are complicit in its unfolding. The contributors raise caution regarding the use of spatial big data, citing issues of accuracy, surveillance, and privacy.

Review Quotes

"Thinking Big Data in Geography delivers vital theoretical and empirical perspectives on the problems and possibilities of spatialized data in both extraordinary circumstances and everyday life."--Craig Dalton, assistant professor of global studies and geography at Hofstra University-- (9/19/2017 12:00:00 AM)

"In recent years, big data has been frequently touted as the new reality in research, business, and nearly everything else. This work examines the promise and realities of big data specifically as it relates to geographically referenced information."--J. Cummings, Choice

"The drumbeat of 'big data' is reorganizing everyday life, for some. This important collection takes the pulse of this hype from the perspective of the discipline of geography, pursuing questions that highlight the peculiarities of this location-based, techno-cultural moment."--Matthew W. Wilson, associate professor of geography at the University of Kentucky
-- (9/19/2017 12:00:00 AM)

"This collection is a key step along the road from hyperbole to engagement with regard to the significance and impacts of big spatial data. It offers key insights into big spatial data as both means and object of researcher, tracing the socio-spatial and epistemological possibilities and limits of this dynamic phenomenon."--Sarah Elwood, professor of geography at the University of Washington
-- (9/19/2017 12:00:00 AM)

About the Author

Jim Thatcher is an assistant professor of geography at the University of Washington Tacoma. Josef Eckert is an academic advisor for the Master of Library and Information Science program at the University of Washington. Andrew Shears is an assistant professor of geography at Mansfield University.