Call For Papers: Situating Sat Nav: Questioning the Tom Tom Effect

http://personalpages.manchester.ac.uk/staff/m.dodge/Situating_Satnav_AAG_CFP.pdf

Session organisers:
Chris Perkins and Martin Dodge
Geography, School of Environment and Development, University of Manchester

Context:
Comprehensive in-car satellite navigation (Sat Nav) systems have rapidly
become affordable and must-have mass-market accessories, advertised on
television and the focus of 'scare' stories in the tabloid press. With
their driver's-eye position, dynamic maps and an authoritative voice
telling you where and when to turn, these archetypal geographical gizmos
depend on the 'magic' locational power of a cluster of unseen satellites
and the global reach of corporations marketing the latest consumer fad.
Sat Nav offers technologically sophisticated spatial data models of the
world, but the technology quickly sinks into taken-for-granted everyday
driving practices, such that its social and political significance is hard
to assess. The gadgets themselves take space on the dashboard and
windscreens, but also make new senses of space for the driver, well beyond
the car. What exactly is the nature of this TomTom effect?

We invite theoretically informed analyses questioning the social effects,
cultural meanings and political economy of in-car satellite navigation.

Suggested themes:

• The politics of the socio-technical infrastructures and corporate
  practices underpinning collection and distribution of street maps and
  points-of-interest databases.
• Consideration of the risks that flow from people's unwitting trust in
  the truth spoken by their Sat Nav. How dependent are drivers on them? Do
  they raise confidence, make driving safer and empower people with enhanced
  mobility? Or is the promise of never being lost an illusion, hiding
  navigational blind spots and a loss of geographical autonomy?
• The embodied practices of using Sat Nav and the ways in which these may
  be associated with social power, e.g. gendered, classed, aged, etc.
  Cultural meanings attached to Sat Nav. How people feel about granting
  decision-making control over to software? Cross cultural studies of Sat
  Nav.
• The efficacy of these systems. How to evaluate the accuracy of databases
  and fidelity of routing algorithms when the internal workings are
  deliberately 'black-boxed'. Impacts on aggregate trip behaviour, local
  traffic flows through neighbourhoods, by-passing speed cameras and traffic
  calming measures, etc.
• Map and voice interface design and its possible deconstruction.
• Hacking Sat Nav: artistic, playful, or subversive uses of the
  technology.
• Navigational ethics, particularly relating to individual privacy and
  community rights. The surveillant potential of Sat Nav as 'spy in the car'
  for states and corporations.

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Proposed papers in the form of a title and short abstract (250 words
maximum) should be submitted to Martin Dodge (m.dodge@manchester.ac.uk) by
30th September 2007. Further details on the paper requirements and
registration for the AAG meeting are at
http://aag.org/annualmeetings/2008/index.htm