Hind, Sam (2016) Disruptive cartographies : manoeuvres, risk and navigation. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

There have been many opportunities to study protest events over the last six years. From Occupy to the Arab Spring and 15M. After the financial crash, citizens of the world crafted their own original responses. What they shared – from New York to Cairo and Madrid – was a desire to take to the streets in political protest. In the UK the enemy was ‘austerity’. One of the first policies of this new era proposed a rise in Higher Education tuition fees. Students took to the streets in dissent. A host of political, institutional, technological and social transformations occurred. More specifically, it saw the birth of a digital platform designed to help protesters navigate during protests. It was called Sukey. This thesis interrogates the impact and legacy of the Sukey platform; over, and beyond, these tumultuous years. It does so through the lens of ‘disruptive cartography’, arguing that the platform was deployed to disrupt the smooth running of both so-called ‘A-to-B’ demonstrations, and police containment tactics colloquially referred to as ‘kettles’. I contend that the platform did so by providing up-to-date navigational information regarding active phenomena, such as police movements. In this thesis I undertake an aesthetic, interactive and mobile analysis to investigate the navigational dimensions of the project. I do so through an automobile metaphor in which I look ‘under the bonnet’, ‘through the windscreen’, and ‘on(to) the road’. In its absence, I argue that protesters have lacked the requisite navigational knowledges to perform unpredictable manoeuvres, during protest events. As a result, they have returned to using institutional forms that limit the navigational possibilities brought-into-being by the Sukey platform. I conclude by speculating on three possible ‘failures’ of the platform regarding its ability to faithfully ‘capture’ live events, provide a navigational ‘correspondence’ between cartographic ‘signposts’, and to protect participants from data-driven policing.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GA Mathematical geography. Cartography H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Protest movements -- Technological innovations, Protest movements -- Maps, Mobile apps -- Political aspects, Crowd control, Cartography -- Political aspects
Official Date:	September 2016
Dates:	Date Event September 2016 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Lammes, Sybille ; Tkacz, Nathaniel
Format of File:	pdf
Extent:	315 leaves : illustrations, maps
Language:	eng

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