From GIS to Web Maps - Participatory Mapping: New Data, New Cartography - page 30

“bureaucratic positivism” of the GIS [PIC 91] which combine
a claim to objectivity with a managerial attitude toward
territory. Moreover, for the geographer John Harley,
the spread of GIS restrains its access to those that have the
abilities to process them [HAR 90, p.13]: in that way, he
writes, they are “anti-democratic” and generate disparities
among their users [ROC 07]. Finally, Jason Farman recalls
the role of GIS as military and surveillance technology
[FAR 10]. In response to these shortfalls, various
experiments attempted to include a larger part of the
population in geographic information processing; the notion
of participation was central to these.
During the workshop “GIS and Society” that took place in
Friday Harbor, Washington in November 1993, it was
suggested that GIS should be opened to the general public.
This workshop brought together geographers and GIS
technicians and gave them the opportunity to recall that
geographical knowledge is never neutral but, on the contrary,
situated, and that its place in science and society should be
challenged. Then, they appealed for a broader incorporation of
local knowledge in GIS [CRA 10, p.102]. This appeal joins
together the reflexivity of the researcher and the opening to
the mapped populations, and it is the origin of the theoretical
and practical movement of the PPGIS 7 .
The goal of participatory cartography is “the
empowerment of communities through the facilitation of
greater community input and access to geospatial data and
technologies, community mapping and spatial analysis in
support of project decision making” [ROU 07, p.153]. PPGIS
aim to gather local knowledge and experiences, following a
7 Sometimes referred to as PGIS for participatory geographic information
system ; the shift from PPGIS to PGIS was proposed by those who feared
that the opening of GIS would only favor populations that were already in
possession of an economic and cultural capital, and would leave out
marginalized populations [SIE 06, p.493].