Cultural Economies of Locative Media Studies in Mobile Communication Series

Location, location-awareness, and location data have all become familiar and increasingly significant parts of our everyday mobile-mediated experiences. Cultural Economies of Locative Media examines the ways in which location-based services, such as GPS-enabled mobile smartphones, are socially, culturally, economically, and politically produced just as much as they are technically designed and manufactured. Rowan Wilken explores the complex interrelationships that mutually define new business models and the economic factors that emerge around, and structure, locative media services. Further, he offers readers insight into the diverse social uses, cultures of consumption, and policy implications of location, providing a detailed, critical account of contemporary location-sensitive mobile data. Cultural Economies of Locative Media delves into the ideas, technologies, contexts, and power relationships that define this scholarship, resulting in a rich portrait of locative media in all of its cultural and economic complexity.

Rowan Wilken is Associate Professor of Media & Communication and Principal Research Fellow in the Digital Ethnography Research Centre (DERC) at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University in Australia.