11
Fachbereich
Institut für Humangeographie
Toggle navigation EN

Prof. Dr. Lizzie Richardson

Digital Geographies

Institut für Humangeographie
Fachbereich Geowissenschaften/Geographie
Goethe-Universität Frankfurt a. M.
Theodor-W.-Adorno-Platz 6, PEG-Gebäude, Raum 2.G025
60323 Frankfurt am Main

Fon: +49 (0)69 798 35166

E-Mail: richardson[at]geo.uni-frankfurt.de

Sprechzeiten nach Vereinbarung per E-Mail
Digitalisation has long been understood to play a significant role in the spatial organisation of societies, with connectivity producing the “death of distance" at the same time as creating new “virtual" spaces for interaction. Lizzie's work investigates how the social constitution, economic practices and cultural forms of digitalisation can be understood through these changing geographies. She has had research and teaching positions at the University of Sheffield, Durham University and the University of Cambridge. She holds a BA in Geography from the University of Cambridge and an MA and PhD in Human Geography from Durham University.

Digital workplaces and work

Digital work, particularly that associated with platformisation, occurs through geographies of flexibility in which there is the possibility that there is no fixed workplace. Research in this area examines how these geographies can be both causes and symptoms of the polarising socio-economic tendencies of digitalisation, resulting in greater freedom and income for some, yet more direct control and insecurity for others.

Digital geographies and cultural politics

The digital era is often understood as characterised by sharply contrasting cultural divisions and yet simultaneously transgressive and sometimes unexpected cross-border alliances. Research on this theme considers how notions of identity, tradition and the past are performed and reworked through digital technologies, together with their associated geographies of belonging, bordering and movement.

Value and valuation of digital space

Digitalisation can create space and alter existing spatial arrangements, opening possibilities for the formation of new spatial commodities and assets. Research addressing this topic investigates the techniques of valuation shaping such digital space, together with how these techniques may in turn fashion socio-cultural meanings and norms of activity occurring through and beyond these spatial arrangements.

Lizzie is currently PI of the DFG-funded project “The assetisation of digital workplaces" and co-I in the interdisciplinary DFG-funded research training group “Fixing Futures: technologies of anticipation in contemporary societies."

Journal articles

  • Richardson, L. (2025) 'Workplace tours and the cultural production of flexibility' City, culture and society 43.
  • Richardson, L. (2024) 'Space, place and digital technologies.' RESET. Researches en sciences sociales sur Internet. 13. 
  • Richardson, L. (2024) 'The technology of a tech company.' Dialogues in Human Geography. 
  • Richardson, L. (2024) 'Automated office infrastructures and the valuation of work.' Environment and Planning D: Society and Space. [online first]
  • Richardson, L. (2023) 'How is the platform a workplace? Moving from sites to infrastructure.' Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. [online first]
  • Richardson, L. (2022) 'Queer urban theories.' Dialogues in Human Geography 1-4.
  • Richardson, L. (2022) 'Digital work: where is the urban workplace and why does it matter?' Geography 107: 79-84.
  • Richardson, L. (2022) '(De)constructing gender with office technology: from typewriter to productivity apps.' Technique&Culture.
  • Richardson, L. (2021) 'Coordinating office space: digital technologies and the platformization of work.' Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 39 (2), 347-365.
  • Richardson, L. (2020) 'Meal delivery logistics and the agencies of distribution in urban economies of food provision in the UK.' Articulo: journal of urban research 21.
  • Richardson, L. (2020) 'Coordinating the city: platforms as flexible spatial arrangements.' Urban Geography 41 (3), 458-461.
  • Richardson, L. (2020) 'Platforms, markets and contingent calculation: the flexible arrangement of the delivered meal.' Antipode 52 (3), 619-636.
  • Richardson, L. & Bissell, D. (2019) 'Geographies of digital skill.' Geoforum 99: 278-286.
  • Richardson, L. (2019) 'Culturalisation and devices: what is culture in cultural economy?' Journal of Cultural Economy 12: 228-241.
  • Richardson, L. & Thieme, T. (2018) 'Planning working futures: precarious work through carceral space.' Social and Cultural Geography [online early]
  • Richardson, L. (2018) 'Feminist geographies of digital work.' Progress in Human Geography 42 (2): 244-263.
  • Cockayne, D. & Richardson, L. (2017) 'Introduction: a queer theory of software studies: software theories, queer studies.' Gender, Place and Culture.
  • Cockayne, D. & Richardson, L. (2017) 'Queering code/space: the co-production of socio-sexual codes and digital technologies.' Gender, Place and Culture
  • Richardson, L. (2017) 'Sharing as a postwork style: digital work and the co-working office.' Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society 10 (2): 297–310.
  • Richardson, L. (2016) 'Sharing knowledge: performing co-production in collaborative artistic work.' Environment and Planning A 48: 2256-2271.
  • Richardson, L. (2015) 'Performing the sharing economy.' Geoforum 67: 121-129.
  • Richardson, L. (2013) 'Working at the ambivalence of race: ethnomimesis and the cancellation of St Paul's Carnival.' Social and Cultural Geography 14(6): 710-730.

Book chapters

  • Richardson, L. (forthcoming) 'The home as a workplace: domestic technology and skill in the digital era.' In eds. Wenner, M. et al Arbeitswelten: Perspektiven aus Räumen der Re/Produktion. Springer.
  • Richardson, L. & Cockayne, D. (2025) 'Queering the future of work.' In (eds.) MacLeavy, H. & Pitts, H. The Routledge Handbook on the Future of Work. London: Routledge.
  • Richardson, L. (2024) 'Workplaces of the future.' In Johns, J. and Hall, S. M. (eds.) Contemporary Economic Geographies: inspiring, critical and plural perspectives. Bristol: Bristol University Press.
  • Richardson, L. (2021) 'Urban consumption, markets and platforms as flexible spatial arrangements.' In Hodson et al (eds.) Urban platforms and the future city. London: Routledge.
  • Cockayne, D. & Richardson, L. (2020) 'Digital feminism.' In International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (2nd Edition)
  • Richardson, L. (2019) 'Digital and platform economies.' In International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (2nd Edition)
  • Richardson, L. (2019) 'Deliveroo'. In eds. Graham, M. Mattern, Shaw, J. & Kitchin, R. How to Run a City Like a Corporation and other Fables
  • Cockayne, D. & Richardson, L. (2019) 'The Queer Times of Internet Infrastructure and Digital Systems.' In (eds) Nash, C. & Gorman-Murray, A. The Geographies of Digital Sexuality. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Richardson, L. (2018) 'Sharing Economy' in Ash, J. Kitchin, R. Leszczynski, A. (Eds.) Digital Geographies. London: Sage, 200-209.
  • Richardson, L. (2015) 'Theatrical translations: the performative production of diaspora.' in Mavroudi, E. and Christou, A. (Eds.) Dismantling Diasporas London: Ashgate, 15-28.

Book reviews

  • Richardson, L. (2022) 'Digital work in the planetary market' edited by Mark Graham and Fabian Ferrari & 'The digital factory' by Moritz Altenried. Antipode online.
  • Richardson, L. (2021) 'Glitch feminism: a manifesto' by Legacy Rusell. Gender, Place and Culture.
  • Richardson, L. (2020) 'Prison Land: mapping carceral power across neoliberal America' by Brett Story. Social and Cultural Geography.
  • Richardson, L. (2019) Book review symposium for James Ash's Phase Media in Annals of the Association of American Geographers.
  • Richardson, L. (2017) 'Creativity' by Harriet Hawkins. Cultural geographies

Anna Verwey
Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin

E-Mail

Lizzie's teaching expertise lie in cultural, economic and urban geography, together with science and technology studies. Her doctoral and masters supervision comprises research in these broad areas. Current and recent teaching at Goethe University includes courses on digital and platform economies, geographies of work, and digital geographies of gender and sexuality. 

Digital workplaces and work

Digital work, particularly that associated with platformisation, occurs through geographies of flexibility in which there is the possibility that there is no fixed workplace. Research in this area examines how these geographies can be both causes and symptoms of the polarising socio-economic tendencies of digitalisation, resulting in greater freedom and income for some, yet more direct control and insecurity for others.

Digital geographies and cultural politics

The digital era is often understood as characterised by sharply contrasting cultural divisions and yet simultaneously transgressive and sometimes unexpected cross-border alliances. Research on this theme considers how notions of identity, tradition and the past are performed and reworked through digital technologies, together with their associated geographies of belonging, bordering and movement.

Value and valuation of digital space

Digitalisation can create space and alter existing spatial arrangements, opening possibilities for the formation of new spatial commodities and assets. Research addressing this topic investigates the techniques of valuation shaping such digital space, together with how these techniques may in turn fashion socio-cultural meanings and norms of activity occurring through and beyond these spatial arrangements.

Lizzie is currently PI of the DFG-funded project “The assetisation of digital workplaces" and co-I in the interdisciplinary DFG-funded research training group “Fixing Futures: technologies of anticipation in contemporary societies."

Journal articles

  • Richardson, L. (2025) 'Workplace tours and the cultural production of flexibility' City, culture and society 43.
  • Richardson, L. (2024) 'Space, place and digital technologies.' RESET. Researches en sciences sociales sur Internet. 13. 
  • Richardson, L. (2024) 'The technology of a tech company.' Dialogues in Human Geography. 
  • Richardson, L. (2024) 'Automated office infrastructures and the valuation of work.' Environment and Planning D: Society and Space. [online first]
  • Richardson, L. (2023) 'How is the platform a workplace? Moving from sites to infrastructure.' Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. [online first]
  • Richardson, L. (2022) 'Queer urban theories.' Dialogues in Human Geography 1-4.
  • Richardson, L. (2022) 'Digital work: where is the urban workplace and why does it matter?' Geography 107: 79-84.
  • Richardson, L. (2022) '(De)constructing gender with office technology: from typewriter to productivity apps.' Technique&Culture.
  • Richardson, L. (2021) 'Coordinating office space: digital technologies and the platformization of work.' Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 39 (2), 347-365.
  • Richardson, L. (2020) 'Meal delivery logistics and the agencies of distribution in urban economies of food provision in the UK.' Articulo: journal of urban research 21.
  • Richardson, L. (2020) 'Coordinating the city: platforms as flexible spatial arrangements.' Urban Geography 41 (3), 458-461.
  • Richardson, L. (2020) 'Platforms, markets and contingent calculation: the flexible arrangement of the delivered meal.' Antipode 52 (3), 619-636.
  • Richardson, L. & Bissell, D. (2019) 'Geographies of digital skill.' Geoforum 99: 278-286.
  • Richardson, L. (2019) 'Culturalisation and devices: what is culture in cultural economy?' Journal of Cultural Economy 12: 228-241.
  • Richardson, L. & Thieme, T. (2018) 'Planning working futures: precarious work through carceral space.' Social and Cultural Geography [online early]
  • Richardson, L. (2018) 'Feminist geographies of digital work.' Progress in Human Geography 42 (2): 244-263.
  • Cockayne, D. & Richardson, L. (2017) 'Introduction: a queer theory of software studies: software theories, queer studies.' Gender, Place and Culture.
  • Cockayne, D. & Richardson, L. (2017) 'Queering code/space: the co-production of socio-sexual codes and digital technologies.' Gender, Place and Culture
  • Richardson, L. (2017) 'Sharing as a postwork style: digital work and the co-working office.' Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society 10 (2): 297–310.
  • Richardson, L. (2016) 'Sharing knowledge: performing co-production in collaborative artistic work.' Environment and Planning A 48: 2256-2271.
  • Richardson, L. (2015) 'Performing the sharing economy.' Geoforum 67: 121-129.
  • Richardson, L. (2013) 'Working at the ambivalence of race: ethnomimesis and the cancellation of St Paul's Carnival.' Social and Cultural Geography 14(6): 710-730.

Book chapters

  • Richardson, L. (forthcoming) 'The home as a workplace: domestic technology and skill in the digital era.' In eds. Wenner, M. et al Arbeitswelten: Perspektiven aus Räumen der Re/Produktion. Springer.
  • Richardson, L. & Cockayne, D. (2025) 'Queering the future of work.' In (eds.) MacLeavy, H. & Pitts, H. The Routledge Handbook on the Future of Work. London: Routledge.
  • Richardson, L. (2024) 'Workplaces of the future.' In Johns, J. and Hall, S. M. (eds.) Contemporary Economic Geographies: inspiring, critical and plural perspectives. Bristol: Bristol University Press.
  • Richardson, L. (2021) 'Urban consumption, markets and platforms as flexible spatial arrangements.' In Hodson et al (eds.) Urban platforms and the future city. London: Routledge.
  • Cockayne, D. & Richardson, L. (2020) 'Digital feminism.' In International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (2nd Edition)
  • Richardson, L. (2019) 'Digital and platform economies.' In International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (2nd Edition)
  • Richardson, L. (2019) 'Deliveroo'. In eds. Graham, M. Mattern, Shaw, J. & Kitchin, R. How to Run a City Like a Corporation and other Fables
  • Cockayne, D. & Richardson, L. (2019) 'The Queer Times of Internet Infrastructure and Digital Systems.' In (eds) Nash, C. & Gorman-Murray, A. The Geographies of Digital Sexuality. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Richardson, L. (2018) 'Sharing Economy' in Ash, J. Kitchin, R. Leszczynski, A. (Eds.) Digital Geographies. London: Sage, 200-209.
  • Richardson, L. (2015) 'Theatrical translations: the performative production of diaspora.' in Mavroudi, E. and Christou, A. (Eds.) Dismantling Diasporas London: Ashgate, 15-28.

Book reviews

  • Richardson, L. (2022) 'Digital work in the planetary market' edited by Mark Graham and Fabian Ferrari & 'The digital factory' by Moritz Altenried. Antipode online.
  • Richardson, L. (2021) 'Glitch feminism: a manifesto' by Legacy Rusell. Gender, Place and Culture.
  • Richardson, L. (2020) 'Prison Land: mapping carceral power across neoliberal America' by Brett Story. Social and Cultural Geography.
  • Richardson, L. (2019) Book review symposium for James Ash's Phase Media in Annals of the Association of American Geographers.
  • Richardson, L. (2017) 'Creativity' by Harriet Hawkins. Cultural geographies

Anna Verwey
Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin

E-Mail

Lizzie's teaching expertise lie in cultural, economic and urban geography, together with science and technology studies. Her doctoral and masters supervision comprises research in these broad areas. Current and recent teaching at Goethe University includes courses on digital and platform economies, geographies of work, and digital geographies of gender and sexuality.