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Editors’ Choice: Ordering Space: Alternative Views of ICT and Geography

Abstract:

We analyze two ways of thinking about ICTs in the production of space. One is what we call the “mimetic” view. This view focuses on ICTs’ ability to bring representations from one locale into another. Debates about ICTs and geography have historically been driven by this “mimetic” view and continue to be constrained by it. In contrast, we discuss what we call the “algorithmic” view of ICTs, which focuses on computational re-ordering of representations and subsequent reordering of real-world entities. Recently, scholars of ICTs, communication, and geography have increasingly drawn on examples that fall under the “algorithmic” view, yet the distinction between the two views has not been clearly articulated. This paper clarifies this distinction.

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