Map Cultures, Misuses, and GI - A Primer of GIS: Fundamental Geographic and Cartographic Concepts - page 223

cultural values connected to ideology become key parts of GI and maps that
highlight a desired understanding of a portion of the world and subtly erase
other parts of the world in the representation. Wood analyzed a highway
map of North Carolina and showed that mapmakers do things like position
explanatory text over poor areas of the state, for example.

Representing Other Cultures: Participatory GIS
A significant response to the selectivity of GI and maps arose in the late 20th
century and has come to be known as participatory or public participatory
GIS (PGIS). Multiple strands of development and also multiple emphases of
activities can be grouped under the term PGIS. Some of the first prototypes
of GIS-based analysis were developed by Ian McHarg in the 1960s with an
explicit participatory concept in mind, but the concept of public participa-
tion geographic information systems arose mainly from broad academic dis-
cussions of GIS and society in the 1990s. PGIS arose out of attempts to move
beyond social theoretical critiques to promote the development of GIS that
could practically support the needs of communities.
The integration of GIS in a community can take on a variety of forms.
One of the most common is the development of government-supported pro-
vision of equipment, experts, and training for local community groups. Sig-

Angle Lake, Washington, in Assessor's and USGS topographic map representa-

tions.