Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Horton's study illustrates how ICT can be socially appropriated by a particular
group or social movement within civil society and, as Day and Schuler (2006) argue,
has the potential to facilitate the emergence of a counterculture to the dominance
and remoteness of the corporate generated 'space of flows' in our networked society
(Castells, 1996). Day and Schuler offer an alternative conception for community and
civic practice, bringing together recent developments within civil society, potential
and actual opportunities afforded by new media technologies, and particular issues,
like environmental degradation, that confront the contemporary world. 'Civic
intelligence' posits the notion that ordinary people can help fashion and define their
future, as intelligence is something possessed by groups and individuals, basically
describing the capacity to make sense of information and so influencing responses
to environmental and other challenges. Civic intelligence is a combination of com-
munity, civic and social networks requiring concerned people, ethical principles
(inclusivity, justice and sustainability), and an enduring capacity to learn, develop
and refine knowledge and understanding. New media and communication technology
has an important role to play in breaching barriers that have previously maintained
and reinforced social ignorance, disconnection and passivity. The technology lends
itself to implementing environmental monitoring, supporting environmental justice
campaigning, and enhancing communication and networking opportunities among
civil society groups (Horton, 2004), and offers myriad possibilities for discovering
and engaging with local-global issues such as global poverty and climate change.
Although large software developers have significant power 'in setting agendas for
the ways in which geographical information can be displayed and analyzed' (Dunn,
2007: 631), the potential for enhanced citizen input is also being realized in a number
of ways, such as in participatory research, GIS design and environmental justice
campaigning. As Montague and Pellarano (2001) have written, the development of
digital resources has aided many grass-roots community groups in their attempts
to alert others about the dangers associated with the irresponsible disposal of toxic
materials. In some cases this has led to the formation of public policy articulating
the principles of precaution, substitution and clean production. Jordan
et al
. (2011)
show how citizens in Tallahassee (Florida) collaborated in collecting spatial data
from Web-based software, such as Google Earth using photos, video and other
sociodemographic information to oppose the installation of a biomass facility in a
moderate income minority area. A permit had been issued without any prior
involvement of the community or consideration of the effects of pollutants on the
health of the local population and local environment. Maisonneuve
et al
. (2010)
have explored how the general public could initiate a low-cost solution to measuring
urban noise pollution by using just ordinary commercially purchased smart phones
as noise sensors. From the data gathered collectively, annotated noise maps could
be created and shared within a community and with local government. GIS and
similar digital applications therefore have significant political implications for
empowering particular groups, democratizing planning and enhancing the processes
of local democracy. Some observers have even suggested that the utopian impulse
to radical action is alive and well, and residing in digiplaces (S. Warren, 2004).
Computer hacking is a form of cyberactivism, or 'hactivism'. It has radical and
democratic potential when the aim is to subvert autocratic states and other powerfully
exploitative institutions and organizations, but is decidedly undemocratic when
practised by those autocratic, undemocratic and unaccountable bodies themselves
