Geographies of the information society

This article presents the Varenius perspective on the societal dimensions of geographical information technologies and the geographical dimensions of information technologies in general, and puts them in the context of the research literature of the last ten years. The central themes examined are: theoretical perspectives on the societal implications of geographical information technologies; the changing significance of key geographical concepts in the information age; and societal aspects of the practical application of geographical information technologies. The relationships between these themes and three NCGIA Varenius research initiatives on geographies of the information society are summarized, and some directions for future research in this broad area are outlined.

[1]  Trevor M. Harris,et al.  GIS and Society: The Social Implications of How People, Space, and Environment Are Represented in GIS- Scientific Report for the Initiative 19 Specialist Meeting (96-7) , 1996 .

[2]  H Henry,et al.  Should Local Governments Sell Local Spatial Databases Through State Monopolies , 1995 .

[3]  M. Castells The rise of the network society , 1996 .

[4]  Susan L. Cutter,et al.  The Role of Geographic Scale in Monitoring Environmental Justice , 1996 .

[5]  David Rhind Data access, charging and copyright and their implications for geographical information systems , 1992, Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci..

[6]  Lakshman S. Yapa,et al.  Is GIS appropriate technologyquest; , 1991, Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci..

[7]  Michael R. Curry,et al.  Image, practice and the hidden impacts of geographic information systems , 1994 .

[8]  D. Grimshaw Bringing Geographical Information Systems into Business , 1994 .

[9]  R. Shields A Guide to Urban Representation and What to Do About It: Alternative Traditions of Urban Theory , 1996 .

[10]  R. Vos,et al.  AN ARCHAEOLOGY OF ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM IN LOS ANGELES , 1996 .

[11]  Nancy J. Obermeyer,et al.  The Evolution of Public Participation GIS , 1998 .

[12]  Earl F. Epstein,et al.  The use and value of a geodetic reference system , 1984 .

[13]  Francis Harvey,et al.  Boundary Objects and the Social Construction of GIS Technology , 1998 .

[14]  Harlan J. Onsrud,et al.  Tragedy of the Information Commons , 1992 .

[15]  Minhe Ji,et al.  Spatial accuracy of the EPA's environmental hazards databases and their use in environmental equity analyses , 1997 .

[16]  Jeffrey K. Pinto,et al.  Managing Geographic Information Systems , 1994 .

[17]  Paul Virilio,et al.  The art of the motor , 1995 .

[18]  M. Curry The Digital Individual and the Private Realm , 1997 .

[19]  L. Yapa,et al.  Chapter 14 Why Gis Needs Postmodern Social Theory, and Vice Versa , 1998 .

[20]  Nicholas R. Chrisman,et al.  Design of geographic information systems based on social and cultural , 1987 .

[21]  L S Yapa,et al.  Low-Cost Map Overlay Analysis Using Computer-Aided Design , 1989 .

[22]  Stan Openshaw,et al.  A View on the GIS Crisis in Geography, or, Using GIS to Put Humpty-Dumpty Back Together Again , 1991 .

[23]  Michael Barndt,et al.  Public Participation GIS—Barriers to Implementation , 1998 .

[24]  Heather Campbell,et al.  How Effective are GIS in Practice? A Case Study of British Local Government , 1994, Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci..

[25]  S. Elwood,et al.  How and Why Community Groups Use Maps and Geographic Information , 1998 .

[26]  Hugh W. Calkins,et al.  The economic evaluation of implementing a GIS , 1988, Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci..

[27]  Harlan J. Onsrud,et al.  Sharing geographic information , 1995 .

[28]  David R. Godschalk,et al.  Implementation and management effectiveness in adoption of GIS technology in local governments , 1994 .

[29]  Nancy J. Obermeyer,et al.  Bureaucratic factors in the adoption of gis by public organizations: Preliminary evidence from public administrators and planners☆ , 1990 .

[30]  Brian John Cullis Modeling innovation adoption responses : an exploratory analysis of geographic information system implementation at defense installations , 1995 .

[31]  Frances Cairncross The death of distance : how the communications revolution will change our lives , 1997 .

[32]  Michael J. Shiffer Multimedia GIS for Planning Support and Public Discourse , 1998 .

[33]  Marc P. Armstrong,et al.  Exploring the Use of Buffer Analysis for the Identification of Impacted Areas in Environmental Equity Assessment , 1997 .

[34]  Charles F. Hutchinson,et al.  Guidelines for Demonstrating Geographical Information Systems Based on Participatory Development , 1993, Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci..

[35]  I. Masser,et al.  Diffusion and Use of Geographic Information Technologies , 1993 .

[36]  S Openshaw GIS ‘Crime’ and GIS ‘Criminality’ , 1993 .

[37]  Douglas A. Smith,et al.  Assessing costs and benefits of geographical information systems: methodological and implementation issues , 1992, Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci..

[38]  O. Gandy The Surveillance Society: Information Technology and Bureaucratic Social Control , 1989 .

[39]  S. Graham The end of geography or the explosion of place? Conceptualizing space, place and information technology , 1998 .

[40]  S. R. Gillespie Measuring the benefits of GIS use , 1991 .

[41]  Timothy L. Nyerges,et al.  Geographic Information Abstractions: Conceptual Clarity for Geographic Modeling , 1991 .

[42]  E. Sheppard GIS and Society: Towards a Research Agenda , 1995 .

[43]  J. Pickles Representations in an Electronic Age: Geography, GIS, and Democracy , 1995 .

[44]  Robin Flowerdew,et al.  Reacting to Ground Truth , 1998 .

[45]  Zorica D. Budić,et al.  Human and institutional factors in GIS implementation by local governments , 1993 .

[46]  B. Latour Science in action : how to follow scientists and engineers through society , 1989 .

[47]  Wiebe E. Bijker,et al.  Science in action : how to follow scientists and engineers through society , 1989 .

[48]  Joe Podolsky,et al.  City of bits: space, place and the infobahn , 1995, CSOC.

[49]  Roger Clarke,et al.  The Digital Persona and Its Application to Data Surveillance , 1994, Inf. Soc..

[50]  D. Sui GIS AND URBAN STUDIES: POSITIVISM, POST-POSITIVISM, AND BEYOND , 1994 .

[51]  Robert A. Rundstrom GIS, Indigenous Peoples, and Epistemological Diversity , 1995 .

[52]  Michael F. Goodchild,et al.  Demystifying the Persistent Ambiguity of GIS as ‘Tool’ versus ‘Science’ , 1997 .

[53]  J. Pickles Tool or Science? GIS, Technoscience, and the Theoretical Turn , 1997 .

[54]  W. Bowen,et al.  Toward Environmental Justice: Spatial Equity in Ohio and Cleveland , 1995 .

[55]  Jeffrey K. Pinto,et al.  Diffusion of geographic information innovations , 1991, Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci..

[56]  Robert B McMaster,et al.  Modeling community vulnerability to hazardous materials using geographic information systems , 1990 .

[57]  Xavier Lopez Database copyright issues in the European GIS community , 1993 .

[58]  Helen Couclelis,et al.  The Death of Distance , 1996 .

[59]  J. Pickles Ground truth : the social implications of geographic information systems , 1995 .

[60]  R. Lake Planning and applied geography: positivism, ethics, and geographic information systems , 1993 .

[61]  Timothy L. Nyerges,et al.  Geographic Information Systems for Risk Evaluation: Perspectives on Applications to Environmental Health , 1997 .

[62]  N. Smith History and philosophy of geography: real wars, theory wars , 1992 .

[63]  M J Clark GIS—Democracy or Delusion? , 1998 .

[64]  Harlan J. Onsrud Liability in the use of geographic information systems and geographic datasets , 2000 .

[65]  C. Avgerou The Informational City: Information Technology Economic Restructuring and the Urban Regional Process , 1991 .

[66]  N. Thrift New Urban Eras and Old Technological Fears: Reconfiguring the Goodwill of Electronic Things , 1996 .

[67]  Andrew U. Frank,et al.  Concepts and Paradigms in Spatial Information: Are Current Geographical Information Systems Truly Generic? , 1995, Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci..

[68]  I Zorica D. Budić,et al.  Effectiveness of geographic information systems in local planning , 1994 .

[69]  Ash Amin,et al.  The Ordinary City , 1997 .

[70]  Roger P. Miller Beyond Method, Beyond Ethics: Integrating Social Theory into GIS and GIS into Social Theory , 1995 .

[71]  P. Taylor A distorted world of knowledge , 1991 .

[72]  Francis Harvey Improving Multi-Purpose GIS Design: Participative Design , 1997, COSIT.

[73]  Timothy A. Warner,et al.  Apartheid Representations in a Digital Landscape: GIS, Remote Sensing and Local Knowledge in Kiepersol, South Africa , 1995 .

[74]  Simon Marvin,et al.  Telecommunications and the City: Electronic Spaces, Urban Places , 1996 .

[75]  P. Taylor Editorial comment GKS , 1990 .

[76]  Robert B McMaster,et al.  GIS-based Environmental Equity and Risk Assessment: Methodological Problems and Prospects , 1997 .

[77]  S. Aitken,et al.  Who Contrives the “Real” in GIS? Geographic Information, Planning and Critical Theory , 1995 .

[78]  Susan L. Cutter,et al.  Using Relative Risk Indicators to Disclose Toxic Hazard Information to Communities , 1997 .

[79]  M. Armstrong On Automated Geography , 1993 .

[80]  M. Castells,et al.  The Informational City. Information Technology, Economic Restructuring, and the Urban-Regional Process , 1995 .

[81]  Robert A. Rundstrom Mapping, Postmodernism, Indigenous People And The Changing Direction Of North American Cartography , 1991 .

[82]  J. Goss “We Know Who You Are and We Know Where You Live”: The Instrumental Rationality of Geodemographic Systems , 1995 .

[83]  Sarah Elwood,et al.  GIS and Community-based Planning: Exploring the Diversity of Neighborhood Perspectives and Needs , 1998 .

[84]  H. Onsrud,et al.  Protecting personal privacy in using geographic information systems , 1994 .

[85]  R. Kitchin,et al.  Cyberspace: The World in the Wires , 1998 .

[86]  Nancy J. Obermeyer,et al.  The Hidden GIS Technocracy , 1995 .

[87]  Xavier Lopez Balancing information privacy with efficiency and open access: A concern of government and industry , 1994 .

[88]  Michael R. Curry Digital People, Digital Places: Rethinking Privacy in a World of Geographic Information , 1997 .

[89]  Trevor M. Harris,et al.  Empowerment, Marginalization, and "Community-integrated" GIS , 1998 .

[90]  Jon Goss,et al.  MARKETING THE NEW MARKETING: THE STRATEGIC DISCOURSE OF GEODEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS. , 1995 .

[91]  M. Christine Boyer,et al.  CyberCities: Visual Perception in the Age of Electronic Communication , 1995 .

[92]  L. Pulido A CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE METHODOLOGY OF ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM RESEARCH , 1996 .

[93]  H. Onsrud Identifying Unethical Conduct in the Use of GIS , 1995 .