"We Know Who You Are and We Know Where You Live": The Instrumental Rationality of Geodemographic Systems

AbstractThis paper provides a critique of geodemographic systems, sophisticated marketing tools that combine massive electronic data bases on consumer characteristics and behavior, segmentation schemes, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Responsible for a “revolution” in marketing research, geodemographics represents a strategy to exercise rational knowledge-power over everyday life. This critique examines the strategic implications of each component of geodemographics, including electronic surveillance and the erosion of privacy; GIS, spatial inference, and the representation of social space; and segmentation and construction of consumer identity. The paper concludes with remarks about the role of the consumer in geodemographics and the potential for tactical resistances to its strategy.