Guilford Press
1995

This book addresses the role of GIS in its social context. Contributors assess ideas and practices that have emerged amongst users of GIS, demonstrating how they reflect the  material and political interests of certain groups. The contributors also discuss the impact of new GIS technologies  on the discipline of geography and evaluate the role of GIS within the wider context of the free market. The chapters include detailed case studies of the societal and disciplinary  roles being played by the various technologies of surveillance currently deployed. The ethical implications of the dissemination of electronic imagery and spatial representation are also discussed. The decentralising effect of mass electronic communication in terms of social and political  control is highlighted. Specific chapters cover: GIS and  geographic research; computer innovation and adoption in  geography; the strategic discourse of geodemographic  information systems in a modern marketing context; the  redressing of South Africa's historical political ecology  through participatory GIS, and a concluding chapter which  envisages the development of an economy dominated by  electronic representation and the virtual image.