Table Of ContentGeomedia Studies
The present book offers a substantive introduction to geomedia studies,
an expanding interdisciplinary research terrain at the intersections of
media studies and geography. The concept of geomedia is used as a lens
to theorize spaces and mobilities in mediatized worlds. By addressing
imperative questions about the implications of geomedia technologies
for organizations, social groups and individuals (e.g. businesses profit-
ing from geo-surveillance, refugees or migrants moving across national
borders, or artists claiming their rights to public space), the book con-
tributes to the ongoing academic and societal debates in our increasingly
mediatized world.
Karin Fast is Senior Lecturer in Media and Communication S tudies
and one of the Geomedia Research Group coordinators, at Karlstad
University, Sweden. She has published her work in journals such as
Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, International Journal
of Cultural Studies, European Journal of Cultural Studies, and Media
Culture and Society, Communication Theory.
André Jansson is a Professor of Media and Communication Studies and
Director of the Geomedia Research Group in the Department of Ge-
ography, Media and Communication, Karlstad University, Sweden. His
most recent book is Mediatization and Mobile Lives (Routledge, 2018).
Johan Lindell previously postdoctoral researcher at Karlstad University,
is Senior Lecturer in Media and Communication Studies at the Depart-
ment of Geography, Media and Communication, Karlstad University,
Sweden. Lindell is a media sociologist seeking to understand class discrep-
ancies related to globalization, mediatization and news media use from a
Bourdieusian perspective. Lindell has published his work in, for example,
Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory, Journalism Studies, International
Communication Gazette, European Journal of Communication and
Communication Theory.
Linda Ryan Bengtsson is Senior Lecturer in Media and Communication
Studies and coordinator of the Geomedia Research Group at Karlstad
University, Sweden. An interdisciplinary researcher with a wide and
varied background, her work investigates the relations between creative
life, interactivity, media, and place. Her PhD thesis, Re-negotiating So-
cial Space: Public Art Installations and Interactive Experience, laid the
groundwork for her current projects: Music Innovation Network Inner
Scandinavia (MINS), which examines the contemporary music environ-
ment and its digital echoes in the border region between Sweden and
Norway, and Interactive Place-Based Tourism, which investigates en-
hanced experiences in digital tourism in the province of Värmland.
Mekonnen Tesfahuney is Professor of Human Geography at the De-
partment of Geography Media and Communication Studies, Karlstad
University, Sweden. Questions of mobility, power, space and geophilosophy
are his research concern. Amongst his latest publications are the antho-
logies Privileged Mobilities: Tourism as World Ordering (Tesfahuney &
Schough, 2016) and The Post-Political City (Tesfahuney & Ek, 2018).
Routledge Research in Cultural and Media Studies
For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com.
106 Affective Sexual Pedagogies in Film and Television
Kyra Clarke
107 Tracing the Borders of Spanish Horror Cinema and Television
Edited by Jorge Marí
108 Screen Comedy and Online Audiences
Inger-Lise Kalviknes Bore
109 Media Representations of Anti-Austerity Protests in the EU
Grievances, Identities and Agency
Edited by Tao Papaioannou and Suman Gupta
110 Media Practices, Social Movements, and Performativity
Transdisciplinary Approaches
Edited by Susanne Foellmer, Margreth Lünenborg,
and Christoph Raetzsch
111 The Dark Side of Camp Aesthetics
Queer Economies of Dirt, Dust and Patina
Edited by Ingrid Hotz-Davies, Georg Vogt, and Franziska
Bergmann
112 The Materiality of Love
Essays on Affection and Cultural Practice
Edited by Anna Malinowska and Michael Gratzke
113 Fashion and Masculinities in Popular Culture
Adam Geczy and Vicki Karaminas
114 Geomedia Studies
Spaces and Mobilities in Mediatized Worlds
Edited by Karin Fast, André Jansson, Johan Lindell,
Linda Ryan Bengtsson, and Mekonnen Tesfahuney
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Geomedia Studies
Spaces and Mobilities
in Mediatized Worlds
Edited by
Karin Fast, André Jansson,
Johan Lindell, Linda Ryan Bengtsson,
and Mekonnen Tesfahuney
First published 2018
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an
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© 2018 Taylor & Francis
The right of the editors to be identified as the authors of the
editorial material, and of the authors for their individual
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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
CIP data has been applied for.
ISBN: 978-1-138-22152-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-41021-0 (ebk)
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Contents
Acknowledgement ix
1 Introduction to Geomedia Studies 1
KARIN FAST, ANDRé JANSSON, MEKONNEN TESFAHUNEY,
LINDA RYAN BENGTSSON AND JOHAN LINDELL
PART I
Theorizing Geomedia 19
2 The Necessity of Geomedia: Understanding
the Significance of Location-Based Services and
Data-Driven Platforms 21
ROWAN WILKEN
3 Mapping Geomedia: Charting the Terrains of Space,
Place and Media 41
PAUL C. ADAMS
4 Space, Place and Circulation: Three Conceptual Lenses
into the Spatialities of Media Production Practices 61
HELEN MORGAN PARMETT AND SCOTT RODGERS
5 Media, Materiality, Mobility: Understanding Geomedia
as Infrastructure Spaces 79
MIMI SHELLER
PART II
Geomedia Spaces 95
6 Look InsideTM: Corporate Visions of the Smart City 97
GILLIAN ROSE
viii Contents
7 ‘The Sounds of Silence’ – Writing Urban Spaces 114
TINDRA THOR
8 City as Backlot: On Location in San Diego 132
CHRIS LUKINBEAL AND LAURA SHARP
9 Unimaginable Homes: Negotiating
Ageism through Media Use 152
KRISTIAN MøLLER AND MAJA KLAUSEN
PART III
Geomedia Mobilities 171
10 Mobilism in Translation: Putting a New Research
Paradigm to the Test 173
MAREN HARTMANN
11 Artists Out of Place: The Invalidation of Network
Capital in a Small-Town Cultural Community 195
ANDRé JANSSON & LINDA RYAN BENGTSSON
12 Geographical Imaginations, Politics of Hospitality and
the Media in the European Refugee Crisis 215
KAARINA NIKUNEN
13 Fast Media 234
JOHN TOMLINSON
14 Afterword: Geomedia: In Praise of Unruly Conjunctions 249
SCOTT MCQUIRE
List of Contributors 261
Index 267
Acknowledgement
The idea of this book was born with Geomedia: Spaces and Mobilities
in Mediatized World, an international research conference that gath-
ered over 100 researchers from 16 countries in Karlstad, Sweden, in
May, 2015. The conference received financial support from The Swed-
ish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences and was organized
by the Geomedia Research Group at the Department of Geography,
Media and Communication, at Karlstad University. Providing a genu-
inely interdisciplinary ground for research at the crossroads of geogra-
phy and media studies, the conference served as an arena for what we
in this book call ‘geomedia studies’. It became a space for absorbing
conversations on matters of relevance to all of us who try to under-
stand the intricate relationships between media, space, and place, in our
increasingly mediatized, connected, and mobile world. We, therefore,
take this opportunity to thank all of you fellow ‘geomedians’ who at-
tended the 2015 Geomedia conference as either keynote, panelist, pa-
per presenter, artist, or audience, our invited speakers to the Geomedia
Speakers Series, and all those who in one way or another contributed to
the critical and stimulating research exchanges that inspired this book
project. We are also grateful to Karlstad University for all the support
we have received.
Thank you all!
The Editors, Karlstad,
May 15, 2017
