The Social Production of Hybrid Space

In a broad sense, this dissertation is about the social production of hybrid space. Using the work of the Marxist theorist Henri Lefebvre as a theoretical framework, Van den Akker argues that hybrid space is a function of, and functions within, a very specific mode of production (in its social, economic and cultural sense) that should be defined as the urban mode of production. In a narrow sense, this dissertation is an inquiry into the various ways in which the daily use of mobile and locative interfaces affects our social interactions and spatial practices in public spaces and alters our experience of the city. It pursues this line of inquiry by means of four strategic case studies into the use of mobile and/or locative (or GPS-enabled) interfaces. The cases consist of studies into the first wave of artists working with locative media (chapter 3), an analysis of the business models, interfaces and algorithms of Foursquare, an application which has, over the years, established itself as the google of context and local search (chapter 4), gay men using the GPS-enabled dating application Grindr (chapter 5), and a group of teenage girls using a variety of popular smartphone applications, such as Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Snapchat (chapter 6).