Trevor M. Harris, et al. "Pursuing Social Goals Through Participatory Geographic Information Systems," Ground Truth: The Social Implications of Geographic Information Systems (New York: The Guilford Press, 1995): 196-222.

SYNOPSIS:

Trevor Harris, et al.'s approach to GIS in South Africa land reform history seeks to broaden the application of historical GIS to include traditional knowledge and history of relatively powerless peoples, to create what the authors call a "participatory GIS." The authors contend that GIS is not inherently undemocratic technology, but argue that by expanding its inclusive capability GIS can serve wider interests.

EXCERPT:

"Traditional developmentalism is being criticized for being a Western product that perpetuates social and spatial inequality because it is market-driven, technology-based, resource-intensive, and undemocratic. . . GIS utilization for research, planning and project assessment has generally come to be seen as a technicist legitimation of the historical power relations associated with traditional developmentalism." (196)

"Through the Eastern Transvaal case study, we argue for a participatory process of social transformation which employs advanced digital technology. Our argument for a participatory GIS is intended to demonstrate a GIS application where local knowledge, community needs, and specific social histories are appreciated and incorporated into the development process, and 'expertise' is viewed as interactive." (197)

RELATIONSHIP:

Harris et al.'s approach confronts some similar problems in our work--how to incorporate "local knowledge" or other kinds of information into a spatial analysis.