Environmental activism in the platform society: Spatial agency in digital maps
Journal
New Media & Society
Journal Volume
26
Journal Issue
12
Start Page
7058
End Page
7080
ISSN
1461-4448
1461-7315
Date Issued
2024-12
Author(s)
Abstract
Digital maps structure how we understand and interact with space while simultaneously affording agency and the potential for an alternative use of space. This article investigates how digital maps exercise data and spatial agency. Our empirical object is the environmental mobile mapping application water refill map (WRM, Hong-Te/Fengcha Action奉茶行動) in Taiwan. Drawing on the walk-through method and semi-structured interviews with WRM’s founders, we examine how the app leverages the power of digital mapping to encourage participation in environmental activities. We argue that by facilitating data and spatial agency, digital maps enable placemaking at the cognitive and hermeneutic levels. They also turn closed spaces into public ones, thus aiding place-shaping. Meanwhile, this digital environmental activism takes place in a field of contestation and negotiation between agency and structure, apps and infrastructural platforms, collective action and individual power, and environmentalism and (adjusted) commercialism.
SDGs
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Type
journal article