This paper was initially produced for Dr. Philippe Le Billon's Political Geography course (GEOG 329) but was expanded upon and submitted to the Geography Students' Association for review. It was selected to be included as a chapter in the 13th edition of Trail Six, their academic journal.
The article sets out to understand how Cambridge Analytica attempted to influence voters and help conservative campaigns gain ground in elections. The transnational and individualized nature of political microtargeting in this case study is noteworthy because it is enabled by Manuel Castells' space of flows, a series of digital information systems, telecommunications, and transportation networks which connect spatially-distant populations. By applying geopolitical theories the case study, the paper concludes that Cambridge Analytica's operations capitalized on digital network structures by extracting and using voter data in a nonconsensual manner.
The article was published in March of 2018 and is on page 23 of the journal.
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