This study situates geospatial technology within the platform economy and constructs its brand culture, making it visible as a for-profit business rather than a utility. A critical lens is turned on the macroscopic economic and micro-social processes of the geospatial industry that result in the hegemonic relations and discursive regimes that legitimize and naturalize a common geospatially equipped, data-driven world. The annual user conventions and platform marketing of Esri, the global market leader in geographical information systems (GIS), acts as a site to observe how an imagined geospatial community of practitioners and investors is constructed. Branded content is unpacked to understand how the company’s image-making cultivates power relations between the public at large while negating itself as gatekeeper. These symbolic processes and collective practices help influence the uncritical investment and growth of the geospatial industry.

中文翻译：

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品牌化地理空间行业

这项研究将地理空间技术置于平台经济中，并构建了其品牌文化，使其成为营利性企业而不是公用事业。地理空间行业的宏观经济和微观社会过程引起了批判性的关注，这些过程导致了霸权关系和话语权制度，使合法的和自然化的，由地理空间构成的，数据驱动的世界合法化。全球地理信息系统（GIS）的市场领导者Esri的年度用户大会和平台营销，是一个站点，用于观察从业人员和投资者的想象中的地理空间社区是如何构建的。拆开品牌内容以了解公司的形象塑造如何在不与自己成为看门人的情况下培养公众之间的权力关系。