1st Edition

Digital Places Living with Geographic Information Technologies

By Michael Curry Copyright 1998
    208 Pages
    by Routledge

    208 Pages
    by Routledge

    By offering an understanding of Geographic Information Systems within the social, economic, legal, political and ethical contexts within which they exist, the author shows that there are substantial limits to their ability to represent the very objects and relationships, people and places, that many believe to be most important.
    Focusing on the ramifications of GIS usage, Digital Places shows that they are associated with far-reaching changes in the institutions in which they exist, and in the lives of those they touch. In the end they call for a complete rethinking of basic ideas, like privacy and intellectual property and the nature of scientific practice, that have underpinned public life for the last one hundred years.

    Introduction; Part 1 The World According to Geographic Information Systems; Chapter 1 Reason and Language in Geographic Information Systems; Chapter 2 On Space in Geographic Information Systems; Chapter 3 Optical Consistency, Technologies of Location, and the Limits of Representation; Part 2 Geographic Information Systems in Practice; Chapter 4 On the Roots of Geographic Information Systems; Chapter 5 The Reshaping of Geographic Practice; Chapter 6 Who Owns Geographic Information?; Chapter 7 The Digital Individual in a Visible World; Part 3 Living with Geographic Information Systems; Chapter 8 Geographic Information Systems and the Problem of Ethical Action; Chapter 9 Beyond PaleoGIS?;

    Biography

    Michael R. Curry is an Associate Professor in Geography at the University of California, Los Angeles.

    'I would recommend this book to anyone ready to read it with a critical view of the subject matter.' - Environment and Planning, vol 26 ,1999