Abstract
The past twenty years have witnessed the emergence of alternative GIS (alt.gis) practices that are quite different from conventional GIS activities. Intellectually tied to the critical cartography pioneered by J.B. Harley in the late 1980s and early 1990s, alt.gis has evolved from early discussions on GIS & Society, critical GIS, PPGIS, feminist GIS, map stories/geonarratives, deep maps to qualitative GIS, neogeography, crowdsourcing, volunteered geographic information (VGI), geoweb, post-colonial computing, geogames, geodesign, and spatial humanities. This paper develops a preliminary framework to loosely knit together the diverse intellectual threads for Alt.gis. This paper argues that Daniel Pink’s framework for the six senses of the whole new mind (design, story, symphony, empathy, play, and meaning) captures the six major Alt.gis practices remarkably well. Mainstream GIS development has been predominantly concentrating on automated cartography/map-making, spatial modeling, geo-computation, and database development with the goal for efficiency, which tend to be closely associated with the left-side/slow thinking capabilities of the human brain. In contrast, Alt.gis focuses more on geo-narratives, qualitative/mixed methods, story-telling, and synthesis with the goal for achieving equity and social justice, which tend to be more closely associated with the right-side/fast thinking capabilities of the human brain. Evidently, Alt.gis has enabled GIS users to transcend what Heidegger called the enframing nature of technology and has led them explore new territories with greater sensitivities. In this sense, Alt.gis has become an enabling technology that continues to empower GIS users in their quest for a better, more equitable and sustainable world.
Keywords
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
See Wilson (2012) for a more comprehensive list of bibliography on critical GIS, which considerably overlaps with the literature of alt.gis as reviewed in this paper.
- 2.
According to Pink (2006), “high concept” refers the functions of the left side of the brain and “high touch” is related to the functions of the right side of the brain, which constitutes the whole new mind. We need both to succeed.
References
Agnew J (2011) Space and place. In: Agnew J, Livingston DN (eds) The sage handbook of geographical knowledge. Sage, Los Angeles, CA, pp 316–330
Ahlqvist O, Ramanathan J, Loffing T, Kocher A (2012) Geospatial human-environment simulation through integration of massive multiplayer online games and geographic information systems. Trans GIS 16(3):331–350
Aitken S, Craine J (2009) Into the image and beyond: affective visual geographies and GIScience. In: Cope M, Elwood S (eds) Qualitative GIS: a mixed methods approach. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, pp 139–153
Barnes TJ, Sheppard E (2010) ‘Nothing includes everything’: towards engaged pluralism in anglophone economic geography. Prog Hum Geogr 34(2):193–214
Bennett WL, Segerberg A (2011) Digital media and the personalization of collective action: social technology and the organization of protests against the global economic crisis. Info Commun Soc 14(6):770–799
Caquard S (2011) Cartography I: mapping narrative cartography. Prog Hum Geogr. doi:10.1177/0309132511423796
Castree N, Chatterton P, Heynen N, Larner W, Wright M (eds) (2010) The point is to change it. Antipode book series. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford and Malden
Crampton JW, Graham M, Poorthuis A, Shelton T, Stephens M, Wilson MW, Zook M (2013) Beyond the geotag: situating ‘big data’ and leveraging the potential of the geoweb. Cartograph Geogr Inf Sci 40(02):130–139
Dangermond J (2009) GIS: designing our future. Available on-line at: http://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/summer09articles/gis-designing-our-future.html (last accessed 5 June 2013)
Davis C (2013) Aleppo satellite images reveal destruction wrought by Syria War. Available on-line at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/06/aleppo-satellite-images-reveal-destruction_n_3713640.html
de Smith M, Longley P, Goodchild MF (2011) Geospatial analysis: a comprehensive guide, Kindle edn. Troubador Publishing, London
Diamond L, Plattner M (eds) (2012) Liberation technology: social media and the struggle for democracy. JHU Press, Baltimore
Dodge M, Kitchin R (2013) Crowdsourced cartography: mapping experience and knowledge. Environment and Planning A 45(1):19–36
Egenhofer MJ, Mark DM (1995) Naive geography. In: AU Frank, W Kuhn (eds) Spatial information theory: a theoretical basis for GIS, Lecture Notes in Computer Sciences No. 988. Springer, Berlin, pp 1–15
Elwood SA, Mitchell K (2012) Mapping children’s politics: spatial stories, dialogic relations and political formation. Geografisker Ann Series B Hum Geogr 94(1):1–15
ESRI (2012) Telling stories with maps: a white paper. Available on-line at: http://storymaps.esri.com/downloads/Telling%20Stories%20with%20Maps.pdf
Gardner H (2006) Five minds for the future. Harvard Business School Press, Boston
Genovese E, Roche S (2010) Potential of VGI as a resource for SDIs in the North/South context. Geomatica 64(4):439–450
Gilbert M, Masucci M (2011) Information and communication technology geographies: strategies for bridging the digital divide. Praxis (e) Press—University of British Columbia, Vancouver
Goodchild MF (2010) Towards geodesign: repurposing cartography and GIS? Cartogr Perspect 66(Fall):55–69
Graham M (2011) Time machines and virtual portals: the spatialities of the digital divide. Progress in Development Studies 11(3):211–227
Haklay M (2010) The tyranny of place and OpenStreetMap. http://povesham.wordpress.com/2010/07/10/the-tyranny-of-place-and-openstreetmap/
Haklay M (2013) Neogeography and the delusion of democritisation. Environ Plan A 45(1):55–69
Harris TM, Weiner D, Warner TA, Levin R (1995) Pursuing social goals through participatory geographic information systems. In: Pickles J (ed) Ground truth: the social implications of geographic information systems. Guilford Press, New York
Kahneman D (2013) Thinking, fast and slow. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, New York
Kane P (2004) The play ethic: a manifesto for a different way of living. MacMillan, New York
Kwan M (2007) Affecting geospatial technologies: toward a feminist politics of emotion. Prof Geogr 59(1):27–34
Kwan M (2008) From oral histories to visual narratives: re-presenting the post-September 11 experiences of the Muslim women in the USA. Soc Cult Geogr 9(6):653–669
Kwan M, Ding G (2008) Geo-narrative: extending geographic information systems for narrative analysis in qualitative and mixed-method research. Prof Geogr 60(4):443–465
Mennis J, Mason MJ, Cao Y (2013) Qualitative GIS and the visualization of narrative activity space data. Int J Geogr Inf Sci 27(2):267–291
Pink DH (2006) A whole new mind: why right-brainers rule the world. Riverband
Schuurman N (2006) Formalization matters: critical GIScience and ontology research. Ann Assoc Am Geogr 96(4):726–739
Steinitz C (2012) A framework for geodesign: changing geography by design. ESRI Press, Redlands
Stephens M (2013) Gender and the GeoWeb: divisions in the production of user-generated cartographic information. GeoJournal (forthcoming)
Sui DZ (2004) GIS, cartography, and the third culture: geographical imaginations in the computer age. Prof Geogr 56(1):62–72
Sui DZ (2005) Beethoven, picasso and GIS: is spatial really special? GeoWorld 9:22–24
Sui DZ (2008) Geography and GIS in second life. GeoWorld 9:19–21
Sui DZ (2009) Mashup and the spirit of GIS and geography. GeoWorld 12:15–17
Sui DZ, Goodchild MF, Elwood S (2012) Volunteered geographic information, the exaflood, and the growing digital divide. In: Sui DZ, Elwood S, Goodchild MF (eds) Crowdsourcing geographic knowledge: volunteered geographic information in theory and practice. Springer, Berlin, pp 1–20
Tuan Y (1977) Space and place: the perspective of experience. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
Wallace DB, Gruber HE (1989) Creative people at work. Oxford University Press, New York
Wilson MW (2012) Critical GIS reading list. Available on-line at: www.criticalGIS.com (last accessed 23 Aug 2013)
Wood D (2010) Everything sings: maps for a narrative atlas. SIGLIO, Los Angeles
Young J, Gilmore M (2013) The spatial politics of affect and emotion in participatory GIS. Ann Assoc Am Geogr 103(4):808–823
Acknowledgments
Critical comments by Francis Harvey and Nadine Schuurman on an earlier draft of this paper are gratefully acknowledgement. The author is solely responsible for any remaining problems.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Sui, D.Z. (2015). Alternative GIS (alt.gis) and the Six Senses of the New Mind: Is alt.gis Transforming GIS into a Liberation Technology?. In: Harvey, F., Leung, Y. (eds) Advances in Spatial Data Handling and Analysis. Advances in Geographic Information Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19950-4_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19950-4_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-19949-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-19950-4
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)