[Air-L] CFP Special Issue of The Information Society on Geographies of the Information Society Revisited

[richard.ling at telenor.com]

Hello all,

Harmeet Sawhney has asked me to post the attached call for papers for a
special issue of The Information Society on "Geographies of the
Information Society."  If you are interested in submitting an abstract
you should send it to Hamid R. Ekbia (guest editor along Nadine
Schuurman) by September 1, 2007, at hekbia at indiana.edu. 

Rich L. 


CALL FOR PAPERS 
Special Issue of The Information Society on Geographies of the
Information Society Revisited 
Guest Editors: Hamid R. Ekbia and Nadine Schuurman 
The information society can be usefully characterized as a universe at
the intersection of three distinct but interdependent spaces: the
geographical space, the social space, and the informational space.
Although there are obvious differences among these spaces, there are
also interesting similarities. In each of them, we discover asymmetries,
inequalities, and hierarchies. We also identify similar features and
activities -- most notably, links, bridges, and associations being
continuously assembled, disassembled, and reassembled; borders drawn,
erased, and redrawn incessantly; and boundary objects shuttled along the
links and across borders tirelessly. People, organizations, and
communities find it increasingly difficult to negotiate their way
through this convoluted universe.
Individuals find it hard to balance between often contradicting demands
of local and global norms, expectations, and institutions; governmental,
non-governmental, and supra-governmental organizations have to manage an
immense flow of people, information, and material and cultural goods;
and communities need to flexibly accommodate an equally enormous flux of
ideas, individuals, and objects. Making sense of this complex state of
affairs is beyond the scope of any single discipline, the capacity of
any one method, or the resources of any individual philosophy. Rather,
it can emerge from the exchanges and interactions among multiple ideas,
methods, models, and disciplines. This is a call for such a
multidisciplinary endeavor.
In 1997 the National Science Foundation launched Project Varenius with
the aim of advancing geographic information science (Goodchild et al.
1999). Varenius incorporated three components: computational, cognitive,
and societal. In a review paper titled "Geographies of Information
Society," Sheppard et al. (1999) explored the third (societal) component
with the aim of introducing the key research initiatives and also to set
"a benchmark by which to assess, a few years from now, the specific
contributions of the Varenius project to that increasingly vital
research area" (p. 798).
Judging by the diversity of topics and the scope of literature of the
last few years, one could safely argue that research on the societal
aspects of geographic information science and technology has maintained,
and indeed increased, its vitality. Researchers from geography and
neighboring disciplines have since tackled many key and critical issues,
specifically around the three initiatives of the societal component of
Varenius Porject-- namely, (i) Place and identity in an age of
technologically regulated movement, (ii) Measuring and representing
accessibility in the information age, and (iii) Empowerment,
marginalization, and public participation GIS. The growth in recent
years of interest in critical GIS also contributes to this line of work,
posing new questions and offering fresh insights. This has resulted in a
healthy exchange of ideas between those who are concerned with the
social, cultural, and political implications of modern technologies and
practices and those who take more interest in the development and
application of those technologies (see, for example, Schuurman and Kwan
2004, Harris and Harrower 2006).
These exchanges can be further extended by involving information
scientists who also think about similar questions in regards to modern
information and communication technologies (ICT) and the information
society. There are many interesting parallels between the types of
questions and issues that face these scholars, making a mutual
conversation intellectually productive. The purpose of this special
issue is to contribute to that conversation.
The range of possible topics is rather large. We take our lead from
Sheppard et al.'s original review, revisiting its key themes and
questions. As these authors had suggested, the title "geographies of the
information society" is interpretively flexible, meaning different
things to different people: the actual geographies that evolve on the
surface of the earth in the information age, the virtual geographies
that are the direct products of modern ICT, or the conceptual
geographies gradually developed in individual and social consciousness
through the representations of earth by these technologies.
Each of these meanings introduces its own set of themes, questions, and
challenges. The themes include, but are not limited to: the
socio-political relations inscribed in maps and in GIS use; limits of
representation in GIS; a critical history of GIS; ethics, privacy, and
GIS; alternative GIS; the use of GIS in debates about global change; and
gender and GIS. The questions are similarly vast in number:
 - How has the development of modern ICT and especially geographic
technologies altered the regulation of flows of people, goods, and
information? - To what extent has the regulation of borders at various
scales -- from neighborhood to nation state and beyond -- moved away
from geographical borders, and been replaced by ubiquitous forms of
control? - How are these various regulatory regimes related to personal
and group identity?
 - How have alternative non-place-based identities been promoted and
maintained? How have they been controlled, and how successful have these
controls been?
 - What lessons relevant to the world of the Internet can be learned
from these experiences? And vice versa?
 - What future is there for borders and boundaries in a world where
'there is no there'?
 - What space-time topologies need to be developed to accommodate both
the physical and virtual worlds?
 - How do emerging conceptions of virtual space map onto traditional
conceptions of geographic space and how do we handle their interface
analytically? Many of these questions were previously formulated in
projects such as Initiative 19 (cf. Sheppard et al. 1999), and have been
explored by geographers and non-geographers, but an adequate
understanding is still far from available. Other questions have emerged
as a result of intellectual developments in the last few years -- e.g.,
in social theory (Latour 2005, Pickles 1999). Of particular interest to
information science is the question of flow, change, and movement.
Traditionally, the focus in geography has been on places, shapes, and
boundaries. In a similar fashion, geospatial technologies (including
GIS) rely on practices that tend to fix boundaries. An alternative
conception would arise if we put flow, circulation, and displacement
first, and shapes and places second. What conceptualizations of
geography would allow this shift of perspective? How can we develop a
geography of networks rather than places? Are there ways that boundaries
asserted through geospatial practices could be made less absolute and
less stable? 
The guest editors invite abstracts by September 1, 2007, which should be
sent to hekbia at indiana.edu. 
Authors with the most to offer to the dialogue will be invited to
contribute full papers, which will go through the normal review process
of the journal. For more information on TIS guidelines, please refer to:
http://www.indiana.edu/~tisj/contributors/guest%20editors.html 
References 
Goodchild, M., Egenhofer, M., Kemp, K., and Mark, D., and Sheppard, E.
(1999). International Journal of Geographical Information Science 13
(8): 731-745. 
Harris, L. and Harrower M. (2006). Critical Interventions and Lingering
Concerns: Critical Cartography/GISci, Social Theory, and Alternative
Possible Futures. ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical
Geographies, 4 (1), 1-10 
Latour, B. (2005). Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to
Actor-Network Theory. Oxford University Press. Pickles, J. (1999).
Social and Cultural Cartographies and the Spatial Turn in Social Theory.
Journal of Historical Geography, 25: 93-98. 
Sheppard E., Couclelis H., Graham S., Harrington J. W., and Onsrud H.
(1999). Geographies of Information Society. International Journal of
Geographical Information Science, 13(8): 797-823(27) 
Schuurman, N. and Kwan, M. (2004). Guest editorial: Taking a walk on the
social side of GIS. Cartographica 39(1): 1-3 


Rich L.