Empowerment, Marginalization, and "Community-integrated" GIS

The "GIS and Society" literature has raised a number of critical issues concerning the political economy and epistemology of geographical information systems (GIS) and the politics and power relations associated with their use. Recently, attention has focused on the potential for GIS to help empower communities. This paper reviews the GIS and Society debate. Case studies of public participation GIS are reviewed. The GIS-empowerment-marginalization nexus is addressed through the concept of community-integrated GIS. It is argued that GIS is a contradictory technology that simultaneously marginalizes and empowers people and communities. As a result, the societal impacts of GIS are contingent upon particular configurations of place-based historical, socio-economic, political, and technological conditions.