Luis F. ALVAREZ LEÓN
Associate Professor
Appointments
Associate Professor of Geography
Area of Expertise
Economic Geography,
Geographic Information,
Geospatial Technologies,
Critical GIS,
Information Policy,
Digital Economy
Biography
I am a political economic geographer with substantive interests in geospatial data, media, and technologies. My research integrates the geographic, political, and regulatory dimensions of the informational and digital economy. At a high level, this research agenda is motivated by three core questions:
1) How are digital economies geographically configured and integrated into capitalism?
2) What are the economic dimensions of geospatial data, media, and technologies?
3) How are social and political relations changing in the (geospatial) digital economy?
I am currently exploring answers to these questions through research projects addressing (among others) the geographies of electric and autonomous vehicles, and the changing political economy of remote sensing in the context of the small satellite revolution.
Education
Ph. D. UCLA
M.A. UCLA
B.A. UNAM, Mexico
Taught Courses
Publications
Books:
Alvarez León, L.F. (May 2024). The Map in the Machine: Charting the Spatial Architecture of Digital Capitalism. University of California Press.
URL: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520389328/the-map-in-the-machine
Peer-reviewed articles:
25. Alvarez León, L.F. (2024). "AI and Global Climate Change in Geographic Perspective". Geo: Geography and Environment. 11(1), e00134.
SSCI Journal Impact Factor: 2.2 (2023); H Index: 18 (2023
24. Bennett, M., Gleason, C., Tellman, B., Alvarez León, L.F., Friedrich, H.K., Ovenmhada, U. & Mathews, A. (2024). "Bringing satellites down to Earth: Six Steps to More Ethical Remote Sensing". Global Environmental Change Advances 2, 100003.
23. Rosen, J., & Alvarez León, L.F. (2023). "Signaling Hinterlands and the Spatial Networks of Digital Capitalism". Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 1-13.
22. Rosen, J. & Alvarez León, L.F. (2022). "The Digital Growth Machine: Urban Change and the Ideology of Technology". Annals of the Association of American Geographers.
21. Alvarez León, L.F. & Aoyama, Y. (2022). "Industry Emergence and Market Capture: The Rise of Autonomous Vehicles". Technological Forecasting and Social Change.
20. Bennett, M., Chen, K.J., Alvarez León, L.F. & Gleason, C.J. (2022). "The politics of pixels: A review and agenda for critical remote sensing". January 2022. Progress in Human Geography.
19. Alvarez León, L.F. (2021). "Artificial Intelligence and the Capitalist Space Economy". Space and Polity, 25(2), 220-236.
DOI: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13562576.2021.1985852
18. Aoyama, Y. & Alvarez León, L.F. (2021). "Urban Governance and Autonomous Vehicles". Cities. The International Journal of Urban Policy and Planning, 119(2021), 1-10.
17. Alvarez León, L.F. (2021). "Digital trade and the remaking of the North American regional economy". Investigaciones Regionales - Journal of Regional Research, Issue 50 - Summer 2021. 59-69.
URL: https://investigacionesregionales.org/en/article/digital-trade-and-the-…- american-regional-economy/
16. Alvarez León, L.F. & Rosen, J. (2020). "Technology as Ideology in Urban Governance". Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 110(2), 497-506.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2019.1660139
Republished as
Alvarez León, L.F. & Rosen, J. (2021). "Technology as Ideology in Urban Governance". In L. Bian (Ed.), Smart Spaces and Places. Routledge.
URL: https://www.routledge.com/Smart-Spaces-and-Places/Bian/p/book/978036770…
15. Alvarez León, L.F. & Quinn, S. (2019). "Street-level imagery". Peer-reviewed article for Geographic Information Science & Technology Body of Knowledge. University Consortium for Geographic Information Science.
DOI: https://gistbok.ucgis.org/bok-topics/street-level-imagery
14. Tarr, A. & Alvarez León, L.F. (2019). "Will Review for Points: The Unpaid Affective Labor of Place-making for Google's Local Guides". Feminist Review, 123 (1). 89-105.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0141778919879763
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