Standing Out in a Crowd: Big Data to Produce New Forms of Publicness

Abstract

The study underpinning this chapter stems from the notion of Lefebvre’s production of space whereby social space is comprised of a network of objects and relationships (Lefebvre and Nicholson-Smith 1991:77). In examining how social space is being reinterpreted and updated by recent technological advancements, we argue that the notion of space production should be reconsidered with more attention given to the role of the individual. The argument for reframing the role played by the individual is based on the way our existing public realm has been intrinsically characterised, and in many ways altered, by the presence of our digital environment and big data. \nWe collected and analysed studies that substantiate the increasing role played by individuals in space making, through their presence and interaction in the digital environment. In this chapter, we present a reflection on the extent to which individuals, through their individual data, actively contribute to the production of public space. This work is intended to add to the on-going research into the idea of code/space (Kitchin and Dodge 2011); transduction (Mackenzie 2002); and mediated spaces (Kitchin et al. 2017).