Is the World Urban?: Towards a Critique of Geospatial Ideology

This book builds upon theories of planetary urbanization to evaluate the limits and potentials of remotely sensed data and other forms of geospatial information as a basis for mapping urbanization processes. 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 of geospatial maps.Building upon our ongoing work on planetary urbanization, we present new metageographical frameworks for visualizing the worldwide urban fabric, including through the theoretically reflexive application of geospatial data. This publication won a Graham Foundation Grant.