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The 7th Doreen Massey Annual Event

Digital Geographies

This event took place on 24th March 2015 at 10:30am (10:30 GMT)
Berrill Lecture Theatre, The Open University, Walton Hall Campus, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom

Digital geographies: How is the digital reformulating geographies’ objects and methods?

This free, one-day event will bring together a range of scholars currently exploring and experimenting at the boundaries of the digital and the geographical today, and will speak to Emeritus Professor Doreen Massey's interests in spatial politics and justice.

Digital technologies are now so diverse and pervasive that, as David Berry has suggested, the category of 'the digital' is becoming almost meaningless. However, that saturation and reach is also highly differentiated, socially and spatially. These differences are also visible within geography as Kitchin argues in his neat division into the geographies of the digital; the geographies by the digital and the geographies produced through the digital. Thus for Kitchin (2014), the spatial distribution of digital technologies, the ways in which digital technologies have altered the nature of objects and practices studied in geography and introduced new methods and practices for producing geographical knowledge are all fundamental. However, how do these vary across subdisciplines? Moreover, digital technologies are not simply setting an empirical research agenda; their theorisation and their effects in the world are also challenging how we as geographers conduct our own research practice. How have objects of concern altered and how is geographical practice – its tools and techniques – altering to reflect the ubiquity of digital technologies?

Follow the pre-event on Twitter (@OpenSpaceRC) and on our Facebook page, Geography Matters, in the preceding weeks.

This event is free but PLEASE REGISTER NOW to attend IN PERSON or ONLINE.

On the day, OpenSpace are delighted to be able to welcome participants' questions and comments via live Q&A:

On 24 March watch the LIVE WEBCAST here. All times shown below are GMT.

The webcast will be available to watch after the event, also available from this page.

PROGRAMME

10:00 Registration and refreshments

Welcome & Introduction

10:30 Gillian Rose and Joe Smith

10:40 Session 1: The digital in geography – who, what, where, when?

This session will provide an introduction to contemporary issues in digital geography, why it matters and offer a conceptual framework for the day’s discussions

Chair: Prof. John Allen

10:40 Concept note: Prof. Rob Kitchin, ERC Advanced Investigator and former director of the National Institute of Regional and Spatial Analysis at the National University of Ireland Maynooth

Geographies Of, Produced By, and Produced Through, the Digital

10:55 Interventions

Dr Agnieszka Leszczynski, Lecturer in Human Geography, University of Birmingham

Spatial Media/Tion

Dr James Ash, Lecturer in Media, Newcastle University

Post-phenomenology, Digital Objects and Methodology

11:15 Questions

11:40 Tea & Coffee

12:00 Session 2: Reformulating urban geography – Sentient cities:

How is the urban being reformulated through digital technologies? What do these socio-technical interventions mean for urban geography?

Chair: Dr George Revill

12:00 Concept note: Prof. Gillian Rose, Professor of Culture Geography, Department of Geography, Open University

Smart, Intelligent, Sentient - and that's just the City: Digital Agency and the Urban

12:15 Interventions

Dr Ayona Datta, Senior Lecturer in Citizenship and Belonging, School of Geography, University of Leeds

The (un)smart city: Fictions of sentient urban futures

Dr Nick Bingham, Senior Lecturer in Geography, Department of Geography, Open University

Weaving the Sentient City: Some Matters of Articulation

Prof. Michael Batty, Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA), University College London

Technologies we use to understand the city are changing the very things we seek to understand

12:45 Questions

13:10 Lunch

14:00 Session 3: Reformulating development geography – changing communities:

How are spatial justice and social justice being reformulated through the digital? Does the digital offer new opportunities for addressing global inequalities?

Chair: Prof. Giles Mohan

14:00 Concept note: Prof. Mark Graham, Senior Research Fellow and Associate Professor, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford

Code, Content, and Control: Global Geographies of Digital Participation and Representation

14:15 Interventions

Prof. Sarah Elwood, Professor of Geography, Centre for Studies in Demography and Ecology, University of Washington Seattle

Working the Cracks: Poverty Politics and the Digital

Valentina Carraro, Cartography and GIS assistant, Grassroots Jerusalem

Grassroots Mapping: Experiences from Occupied Jerusalem

14:35 Questions

15:00 Tea & Coffee

15:25 Session 4: From ‘Impact’ to Interact – digital geography changes the game

How does the research process alter with and through digital technologies? How does interactivity make a difference to our research methods?

Chair: Dr Paul-Francois Tremlett

15:25 Concept note: Dr Joe Smith, Senior Lecturer in Environment, Department of Geography, Open University

Digital Worlds: Interactive Documentary as Geography

15:40 Interventions

Anuradha Vittachi, Author, journalist and co-founder of the Hedgerley Wood Trust and Oneworld.org

Saving Ms. Janaki: How can digital media serve social and environment justice?

Dr Mark Brandon, Reader in Polar Oceanography, Department of Environment, Earth & Ecosystems, Open University

Why I Tweet: What social media means for controversial environmental research

16:00 Questions

16:30 Plenary: Prof. Rob Kitchin

From a single line of code to an entire city: Reframing thinking on digital geographies

17:05 Reception

Select from replays below:

10:30 am Welcome, Introduction and session 1
12:00 pm Session 2: Reformulating urban geography Sentient cities
2:00 pm Session 3: Reformulating development geography changing communities
3:25 pm Session 4: From Impact to Interact digital geography changes the game
4:30 pm Plenary: Prof. Rob Kitchin

The webcast was open to 10000 users