Is the World Urban?: Towards a Critique of Geospatial Ideology

by Neil Brenner (Editor), Nikos Katsikis (Editor)

Geospatial datasets and remotely sensed images have become ubiquitous in scholarly and public discussions of urbanization.

This book evaluates the limits and potentials of remotely sensed data and other forms of geospatial information as a basis for mapping and understanding urbanization processes under modern capitalism. Against the prevalent trend towards cartographic positivism, in which such data are presented as neutral, photographic “captures” of ground conditions, our analysis reveals the hidden, pre-empirical interpretive assumptions that mediate the construction and visualization of geospatial data.

By critically interrogating geospatial data on the most commonly used indicators for mapping urban space, the book casts doubt on the widely naturalized assumption that cities are bounded settlement units, and the concomitant understanding of urbanization as an expansion in the size and distribution of such units.

256 pages, Hardcover

Published June 1, 2025