[(Code/Space: Software and Everyday Life )] [Author: Rob Kitchin] [Feb-2014]

by Rob Kitchin

After little more than half a century since its initial development, computer code is extensively and intimately woven into the fabric of our everydaylives. From the digital alarm clock that wakes us to the air traffic control systemthat guides our plane in for a landing, software is shaping our it createsnew ways of undertaking tasks, speeds up and automates existing practices, transforms social and economic relations, and offers new forms of cultural activity, personal empowerment, and modes of play. In Code/Space, Rob Kitchin and Martin Dodgeexamine software from a spatial perspective, analyzing the dyadic relationship ofsoftware and space. The production of space, they argue, is increasingly dependenton code, and code is written to produce space. Examples of code/space includeairport check-in areas, networked offices, and caf's that are transformed intoworkspaces by laptops and wireless access. Kitchin and Dodge argue that software, through its ability to do work in the world, transduces space. Then Kitchiun andDodge develop a set of conceptual tools for identifying and understanding theinterrelationship of software, space, and everyday life, and illustrate theirarguments with rich empirical material. And, finally, they issue a manifesto, calling for critical scholarship into the production and workings of code ratherthan simply the technologies it enables--a new kind of social science focused onexplaining the social, economic, and spatial contours of software.

Genres: Technology, Philosophy

Paperback

First published March 31, 2011

About the author

I'm a professor at the National University of Ireland Maynooth and the author or editor of 28 academic books and a 12 volume encyclopedia, and author of four crime novels and two collections of short stories. My passions are reading and writing crime fiction and undertaking research on social issues. I contribute to three blogs: The View From the Blue House, Ireland After NAMA, and The Programmable City.

Reviews

[William Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

At its start the text talks about code itself as opposed to software and the merit of its study, however the book is much more about software space and spaces created through the products of code than to the actual code itself. Through this lense the context of different objects and environments is explored, some more thoroughly than other.

The most valuable feature of this book is the authors' proposed taxonomy for the classification of devices based on functionality in relation to data storage, and networking. This in relation to the spaces that these objects create becomes the core focus.

I highly recommend this for anyone looking to establish a vocabulary for talking about the types of devices we interact with across spaces and the roles they play in micro-geographies.

[dasVoid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Must-read for every software developer who wants to understand the ways in which his craft forms the world around us.

The writing style is quite scientific and can be a little dull at times, which is why I only gave 4 out of 5.