Observing Cities - Critical Remote Sensing and the Urban
Possible supervisors will depend on the project focus chosen and availability of staff.
Behind the many different data sources available to innovate geospatial technologies and methodologies are large data infrastructures needed to produce and process geospatial data. We risk forgetting about those infrastructures and how they shape geoscience practices. In thinking exclusively about solutions for technical problems we can also lose sight of the politics those practices entail. The overarching theme Observing Cities invites student led projects that are interested in exploring urban remote sensing from the vantage point of critical remote sensing (Bennett et al 2022).
To list but a few example questions for Masters level research:
How have practices of observing cities changed in light of new remote sensing technologies and methodologies and why does this matter for urban geography?
When, how and why did cities become linked to outer space technologies?
How does remote sensing add to new urban modulating regimes (Marvin 2025) and what does this mean for emergent patterns of urban inequality?
How are local sensor networks shaping urban inequalities (Robinson et al 2022)?
What are the ethics of urban earth observation for informing policy? How, in times of GeoAI, can policy makers trust the information they receive if the underlying data quality and practices are difficult to trace? What would equitable data and technology guardianship need to look like?
This list of questions is not exhaustive and all projects interested in the interplay of urban remote sensing and politics and policy are welcome.
The primary objectives of projects in this theme should be to:
- Acquire the ability to critically evaluate geo-data technologies and their social implications
- Contribute to an emerging field of critical remote sensing through specific case studies
- Develop and apply social science research skills and (if appropriate) link those with specific GIS skills (e.g., mapping dataflows, understanding the spatial dimensions of sensing infrastructures).
As this theme allows for different research questions, the methodological approach of projects in this theme will depend on the precise project question that the student develops during proposal writing. Mixed method approaches are encouraged, especially the creative use of spatial technologies and spatial data in the process of research as well as innovative social science methodologies such as network analytic approaches, encircling methodologies (see Rieder et al 2022). It is likely that the analysis of textual and visual data sources (e.g., policy documents, newspaper articles, expert interviews) will be appropriate.
Bennett, M. M., Chen, J. K., Alvarez León, L. F., & Gleason, C. J. (2022). The politics of pixels: A review and agenda for critical remote sensing. Progress in Human Geography, 46(3), 729–752. https://doi.org/10.1177/03091325221074691
Marvin, S. (2025). Smart weather: Why does it matter for urban studies? Urban Geography, 46(7), 1630–1641. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2025.2527131
Rieder, B., Gordon, G., & Sileno, G. (2022). Mapping Value(s) in AI: Methodological Directions for Examining Normativity in Complex Technical Systems. Sociologica, 16(3), 51–83. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1971-8853/15910
Robinson, C., Franklin, R. S., & Roberts, J. (2022). Optimizing for Equity: Sensor Coverage, Networks, and the Responsive City. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 112(8), 2152–2173. https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2022.2077169
Additional References:
Akbari, Azadeh (2020): Follow the Thing. Data. In Antipode 52 (2), pp. 408–429. DOI: 10.1111/anti.12596.
Iliadis, Andrew; Russo, Federica (2016): Critical data studies. An introduction. In Big Data & Society 3 (2), 205395171667423. DOI: 10.1177/2053951716674238.
Bowker, Geoffrey C.; Baker, Karen; Millerand, Florence; Ribes, David (2010): Toward Information Infrastructure Studies: Ways of Knowing in a Networked Environment. In Jeremy Hunsinger (Ed.): International handbook of internet research. Dordrecht: Springer, pp. 97–118.
Klimburg-Witjes, N., Poechhacker, N., and Bowker, G. C. (2021) Sensing In/Security: sensors as transnational security infrastructures: Mattering Press.
Kostakis, V., Pazaitis, A. and Liarokapis, M. (2023) “Beyond high-tech versus low-tech: A tentative framework for sustainable urban data governance,” Big Data & Society. SAGE Publications. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517231180583.
The use of remote sensing applications increasingly shapes urban governance. This creates wicked problems as new socio-technical entanglements are often insufficiently understood. By choosing this topic, you can critically explore the link between urban governance and remote sensing applications - questioning the values and priorities that go into solving wicked problems. To take this kind of viewpoint, you will need to be able to read across disciplines and enjoy critically questioning the why of solutionist approaches.