Empowerment, Marginalization, and

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Empowerment, Marginalization, and
Community-integrated GIS

• Trevor Harris and Daniel Weiner
• Presented by Paris Edwards
• and Maria Stefanovich
• October 1, 2007

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What is GIS?

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vxLjtzxXTpN0

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Public Participation GIS

• is an interdisciplinary research, community
  development and environmental stewardship tool
  grounded in value and ethical frameworks that
  promote social justice, ecological
  sustainability, improvement of quality of life,
  redistributive justice, nurturing of civil
  society, etc
• (By Doug Aberley and Renee Sieber)

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Hypothesis

• GIS is a contradictory technology that
  simultaneously empowers and marginalizes people
  and communities. Therefore, the societal impacts
  of GIS are dependent on particular configurations
  of place-based
• historical,
• socio-economic,
• political and
• technical conditions

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National Research Council Predictions

• Wide-spread use of GIS by 2010
• increased citizen involvement
• better and more rapid access to public data
• the ability to present data more persuasively
• improved communications and technologies to
  support collaboration
• power of the Internet and the WWW for rapid
  publication and dissemination of ideas and data

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National Research Council Predictions (cont.)

• Possible restrictions on public access to data
  and increasing privatization of spatial data
• Concern for citizen preparedness to deal with
  spatial data and think spatially

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GIS and Society

• quiet revolution
• Use of GIS widening- need for demonstration
  projects
• Issues arise concerning the interpretation of
  alternative data

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GIS and Society

• Top-down, elitist, technicist
• GISs dualistic nature - using data to both
  empower and marginalize
• Examples red-lining and gerrymandering

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The anti-geography

• Breakdown between knowledge and data
• Can GIS be value-neutral?
• Is GIS a tool or a science?

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Access to Data

• Commodification of data
• Privacy and use of geodemographic data

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Challenges

• Knowledge distortion
• Democratic involvement as an antidote
• Agencies bias
• Accountability

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Attempts to overcome GIS challenges

• Initiative 19
• Democratizing access - how can GIS be modified
  for that purpose?

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PPGIS CASE STUDIES

• The Eagle Project (environmental health and risk
  assessment)
• Peruvian Amazon (economic development strategies)

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Patterns

• Control, Access, Results
• Two central themes in the success of PPGIS
  projects are accountability and sustainability.

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Interactive Online Mapping

• - How accessible is it?
• www.interrain.org

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Community Use of GIS

• Hutchison and Toledano
• demand driven vs. technology driven
• Is it possible to avoid the top down approach
  to introducing technology?

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GIS and Society

• The integration of local knowledge and the
  representation of non-hegemonic epistemologies of
  space, environment, and territory are complex and
  potentially contradictory aspects of alternative
  GIS production and use.
• Can GIS accurately translate non-empirical data?
  (Rundstrom)

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Technological Repercussions

• Disenfranchizing indigenous populations and the
  knowledge they provide by replacing the
  traditional methods with technology
• What is lost in translation?

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Community Integrated GIS

• Opens up involvement to those outside of the
  community
• Integrates spatial and non-spatial data to
  incorporate alternative local knowledge
• Displays information in forms alternative to maps
  for diversity in representation
• Allows inclusion of data that cannot be easily
  translated to map form
• Does the production process seem feasible?

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Project Scope

• Accessibility to GIS on the internet
• Could telecommunication be the key to increasing
  access to GIS?

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Conclusion

• Skepticism about empowerment given the dualistic
  nature of GIS to both marginalize and empower
• Place-based approach to the use of GIS
• Relevance of GIS information is temporary and
  dependent upon power configurations

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Points to Ponder

• Issues of hegemony, democracy, privacy are they
  really avoidable?
• Is cultural heritage at risk? Do risks outnumber
  the benefits?
• What about the age of the article? Are these
  issues still relevant nine years later? Have the
  predictions of widespread use of GIS come true?