Code/Space: Software and Everyday Life (Software Studies) - Hardcover

Kitchin, Rob; Dodge, Martin

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    45 ratings by Goodreads
 
9780262042482: Code/Space: Software and Everyday Life (Software Studies)
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0262042487 ISBN 13: 9780262042482
Publisher: Mit Pr, 2011

Synopsis

An analysis of the ways that software creates new spatialities in everyday life, from supermarket checkout lines to airline flight paths.

After little more than half a century since its initial development, computer code is extensively and intimately woven into the fabric of our everyday lives. From the digital alarm clock that wakes us to the air traffic control system that guides our plane in for a landing, software is shaping our world: it creates new ways of undertaking tasks, speeds up and automates existing practices, transforms social and economic relations, and offers new forms of cultural activity, personal empowerment, and modes of play. In Code/Space, Rob Kitchin and Martin Dodge examine software from a spatial perspective, analyzing the dyadic relationship of software and space. The production of space, they argue, is increasingly dependent on code, and code is written to produce space. Examples of code/space include airport check-in areas, networked offices, and cafés that are transformed into workspaces by laptops and wireless access. Kitchin and Dodge argue that software, through its ability to do work in the world, transduces space. Then Kitchin and Dodge develop a set of conceptual tools for identifying and understanding the interrelationship of software, space, and everyday life, and illustrate their arguments with rich empirical material. And, finally, they issue a manifesto, calling for critical scholarship into the production and workings of code rather than simply the technologies it enables—a new kind of social science focused on explaining the social, economic, and spatial contours of software.

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About the Author

Rob Kitchin is Professor of Human Geography and Director of the National Institute of Regional and Spatial Analysis at the National University of Maynooth, Ireland.

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Publisher
Mit Pr
Publication date
2011
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0262042487
ISBN 13 
9780262042482
Binding
Hardcover
Number of pages
290
Rating
  • 3.84 out of 5 stars
    45 ratings by Goodreads

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780262525916: Code/Space: Software and Everyday Life (Software Studies)

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  0262525917 ISBN 13:  9780262525916
Publisher: The MIT Press, 2014
Softcover