IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/tvecsg/v116y2025i3p242-264.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Thinking Through the Materiality of Big Data: An Outward‐Looking Approach to Data Infrastructure

Author

Listed:
  • Mengzhu Zhang
  • Jiang Xu
  • Pengjun Zhao
  • Calvin King Lam Chung

Abstract

This review paper advances a typology for research involving big data, highlighting a niche yet expanding scholarship on the provision and consumption of data infrastructure. By elucidating the epistemological underpinnings and analytical gaze of this strand of work, we conceptualise an outward‐looking approach to understanding data infrastructure. This perspective is vital in thinking through the materiality of big data and acknowledging the significant role that the practices of big data collection, storage, transfer, and computation play in (re)shaping spaces and places, thereby deepening our insights into sociospatial transformations. To demonstrate this approach, we used recent developments in the big data sector to elaborate on and discuss selected accounts of (a) uneven development, (b) geopolitics–economics nexus over city‐regional transformation, and (c) urban sociospatial restructuring and inequality. The discussion paves the way for scholarly contributions in the realm of geographical political economy and related fields.

Suggested Citation

  • Mengzhu Zhang & Jiang Xu & Pengjun Zhao & Calvin King Lam Chung, 2025. "Thinking Through the Materiality of Big Data: An Outward‐Looking Approach to Data Infrastructure," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 116(3), pages 242-264, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:tvecsg:v:116:y:2025:i:3:p:242-264
    DOI: 10.1111/tesg.70005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/tesg.70005
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/tesg.70005?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:tvecsg:v:116:y:2025:i:3:p:242-264. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0040-747X .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.