Decontextualised Data and Socio-Spatial Differences

This chapter presents (personalised) data as commodities and demonstrates the related contexts of utilisation. Making concrete the possibilities of recursive reference in the data economy, we return to the physical environment: Using commercially traded data for the cities of Berlin, Munich and Essen, an exemplary and empirical study examines in what manner a data-based logic of utilisation reaches the different districts and their inhabitants and the implications this carries for socialisation and the overall social question.