Location Technologies in International Context offers the first account of location technologies internationally (in an expanded sense), and brings together the best available international scholarship on these technologies and their various cultures of use within the Global South. This collection opens up discussion on what location technologies are, what forms they take in different places, what their uses and patterns of consumption are, and what implications they might hold for research, policy, businesses, organisations, governments, and communities. Chapters prompt us to ask, how, within the Global South, do location technologies differ across national markets, geo-linguistic communities, and cultural contexts? What are the contrasting, or shared, meanings and practices associated with location technologies in particular societies, or among particular groups of users? And what innovative practices and new (or reinvigorated) theory may emerge from attention to the Global South? In exploring these questions, the collection contributes to our understanding of social, cultural, gendered and political relations on a global and local scale. It also fosters dialogue around how location technologies have developed in different national contexts, what their different histories are that have influenced and continue to influence their present forms, and what the specific cultural, economic, and political economies are that have shaped location technologies in countries within the Global South.Location Technologies in International Context is ideal for a range of disciplines, including cultural, communication, and media studies; anthropology, sociology and geography; new media, Internet, and mobile studies, informatics and development studies.
