[Air-l] CFP: CFP: Geographies of the Information Society Revisited CFP: Geographies of the Information Society Revisited

[Sawhney, Harmeet Singh]

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