Digital Geographies and Urban Platforms
Summary
Digital geographies investigates how digital technologies reshape the spatial organisation, experience and governance of cities. It examines the flows of data, images and code that animate urban environments, and the platforms—software infrastructures and interface systems—that mediate services ranging from mobility and logistics to civic engagement and environmental monitoring. These urban platforms refract power relations and social practices through algorithmic decision-making, datafication of everyday life and the emergence of hybrid spaces in which physical and digital dimensions interweave. Research spans the design of participatory mapping tools, the role of smartphone apps in extracting and valuing urban data, and the deployment of immersive environments such as urban digital twins and metaverse prototypes. Throughout, questions of equity, privacy, governance and community resilience are central. Digital geographies and urban platforms thus offer a lens on both the promise of enhanced efficiency and participation and the risks of fragmentation, surveillance and uneven access, with practical applications for planners, policymakers and grassroots actors seeking more inclusive and sustainable cities.
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Digital Geographies and Urban Platforms publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in digital geographies and urban platforms across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Digital geography: The study of how digital technologies, data and networks shape spatial relationships and experiences in physical environments.
Urban platform: A digital infrastructure or interface that organises, mediates or delivers services and data flows within a city, from mobility apps to civic engagement tools.
Hybrid space: A socio-spatial formation in which physical places are continuously augmented by digital layers such as real-time information, augmented reality or location-based services.
Urban digital twin: A real-time, virtual replica of a city’s physical systems and infrastructures, used for simulation, planning and collaborative decision-making.
Platform urbanism: The socio-spatial processes and power relations that emerge when platform-based services reconfigure urban production, consumption and governance.
References
- Experiencing hybrid spaces a scoping literature review of empirical studies on human experiences in cyber-physical environments. Computers in Human Behavior (2025).
- Platform urbanism, smartphone applications and valuing data in a smart city. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers (2020).
- Microspheres of self-governance: Platform communities in times of need in Bogotá, Colombia. Cities (2024).
- Urban Digital Twins and metaverses towards city multiplicities: uniting or dividing urban experiences?. Ethics and Information Technology (2024).
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