Presentation short abstract

This paper examines the role of digital outdoor recreation technologies in reshaping dynamics of property, access, and enclosure in rural America.

Presentation long abstract

The extension of digital technologies into rural landscapes warrants a rethinking of classic agrarian questions around property, access, and enclosure. This paper examines emerging Property Technologies (PropTech) that facilitate the sale of outdoor recreation opportunities, such as hunting, hiking, birdwatching, and camping, on private lands in the United States. These platforms mediate digitized connections between landowners and outdoor recreators, reframing long-standing socio-ecological relations as commodified transactions. Where wildlife in the U.S. is held in the public trust and access to private lands has historically relied on interpersonal relations of trust and reciprocity, PropTech introduces a “new” way of doing old things, embedding these practices within digital infrastructures and market logics. Focusing on hunting platforms as a key example, I explore the claims these technologies make, and how they are embraced or resisted on the ground. In doing so, I argue that PropTech disentangles wildlife-based recreation from its broader ecological and social contexts, enabling new forms of enclosure and extractivism. These technologies offer a critical lens to understand how digital infrastructures reconfigure property, commodification, and socio-ecological relations in rural landscapes.