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Participatory GIS : The Social Dimensions of Geographic Information Systems

Participatory GIS : The Social Dimensions of Geographic Information Systems. Allison Phillips & Mark Tirpak ARQ701: T. E. Geoprocessamento e Urbanismo Prof. Gilberto Corso 4 de Octobre, 2006. GIS Is not a neutral technology. Who controls the technology?

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Participatory GIS : The Social Dimensions of Geographic Information Systems

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  1. Participatory GIS: The Social Dimensions of Geographic Information Systems Allison Phillips & Mark Tirpak ARQ701: T. E. Geoprocessamento e Urbanismo Prof. Gilberto Corso 4 de Octobre, 2006

  2. GIS Is not a neutral technology • Who controls the technology? • What GIS are being produced by whom for what purposes? • How can marginalized groups access, use, & benefit from this technology?

  3. GIS as socialconstruction • GIS influences society, and the social environment influences GIS applications & development. • Different than a “representationalist” view of mapping – where stable, known information is simply presented to the user (the maker strives to create “one perfect map”) • GIS must be viewed in terms of power relations (how to allow for competing visualizations and situate the user more as the cartographer?)

  4. The secondtext within GIS • GIS represents political interests, power, & hidden agendas. • Mapping subjugates populations. It politicizes (via borders and categories) our relationship with the ‘other.’ • GIS are rhetorical devices. • There is a need to challenge “arbitrary dualism” or “dividing practices” (Foucalt): • artistic / “folk”/ popular vs. scientific GIS • propaganda vs. true GIS

  5. Questions to consider. . . • Under what circumstances is a GIS authored? • Who uses GIS? How is it used? • How do notions of accuracy vary with time? • Who has access to GIS and who does not? • Who is knowledgeable about GIS and who is not? • Is a GIS really necessary? • Who are the stakeholders?

  6. Participatory GIS: opportunity or oxymoron? • GIS can turn local knowledge into public knowledge – and take it out of local control. • GIS can be used to identify more local resources – and/or increase outside influence on those resources. • GIS can legitimize local information and enable local people to make a modern argument – or it can legitimize bad / biased data. • GIS is a top-down, commercially-developed “Western” technology – does it have a place in participatory development? • How can local knowledge be integrated with and represented in a system that has traditionally rejected such knowledge?

  7. ‘Participatory’ GIS? • Participation at the level of producing information & use of information. • Barriers: • cost (incl. time) / sustainability • privacy/confidentiality • user-friendliness / access issues • skills and training • integrating data / willingness to share data • currency of “bad” data • expectations for the system • Hopes: • integrate previously isolated qualitative & quantitative data • promote new collaboration / more democratic relationships

  8. GIS & Participatory Research (PR) • PR origins = the work of Paulo Freire (concientization) • Variants of PR • Participatory Action Research (PAR) • Participatory Rural / Rapid Appraisal (PRA) • Participatory Mapping (PM) – local people make their own maps (narrative & cartography) • Participatory Action Research Mapping (PARM) – emphasis on collective learning and/or GIS development • Participatory Research Mapping (PRM) – participation in making standard maps. • Other “Barefoot GIS” techniques?

  9. GIS & Empowerment • Increasing role of community organizations in all levels of planning • Types of changes in power relationships • distributive (greater access / inclusion) • procedural (new political legitimacy for certain voices) • capacity-building (resources devoted to empowerment) • Types of empowerment • Social – increased household and individual resources • Political – access to decision-making processes • Psychological – self-efficacy • Issue of scale – are transitions influenced, shaping, and/or limited by what is happening at other scales?

  10. Sources Crampton, “Maps as social constructions,” pp. 235-252 in Progress in Human Geography 25 (2), 2001. Sawicki & Craig, “The democratization of data,” pp. 512-523, in APA Journal 62(4), 1996. Abbot et al., “Participatory GIS: opportunity or oxymoron?” in PLA Notes 33, 1998. Discussion on Foucalt’s “Dividing Practices” http://www.foucault.qut.edu.au/duff.html

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