The locative imaginary: Classification, context and relevance in location analytics

Abstract

The location analytics industry has the potential to stimulate critical sociological discussions concerning the credibility of data analytics to enact new spatial classifications and metrics of socio-economic phenomena. Key debates in the sociology of geodemographics are revisited in this article in light of recent developments in algorithmic culture to understand how location analytics impacts the structural contexts of classification and relevance in digital marketing. It situates this within a locative imaginary, where marketers are experimenting with consolidating the epistemes of behavioural targeting, classification and performance evaluation in urban environments through spatial analytics of movement. This opens up future research into the political and cultural economies of relevance in media landscapes and the social shaping of valuable subjects by third-party data brokers and analytics platforms that have become matters of public and regulatory concern.