Geospatial Technologies and the Geographies of Hope and Fear

Dados Bibliográficos

ID8089306
AutoresBrian Klinkenberg (autor correspondente)
Ano2007
Volume97
Fascículo2
Páginas350-360
Data de publicação2007-05-25
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoAnnals of the Association of American Geographers (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0004-5608 • E-ISSN: 1467-8306
EditoraAmerican Association of Geographers (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-8306.2007.00541.x
OpenAlexW2158757889
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas18
Referências citadas53

The geographies of hope and fear are a rich vein of investigation in our discipline. Social theorists have discussed how geospatial technologies (GSTs) are things to be feared. They point to the loss of privacy, to the use of technologies in warfare, and to the growth of surveillance. I explore this understanding and the “evil” side of geospatial technologies, and I present the alternative view—a view of these technologies as harbingers of hope. GSTs have a positive role to play in environmental protection, in health, and in social justice. There is a need for the involvement of more human geographers in technological development in order to allow for critical analyses of the social impacts generated by these technologies. Only by shining the spotlight of critical geographical analyses on development of GSTs, and their uses, can we ensure that technological development is kept on a path of positive development. This addition of the social to the technological is imperative and requires an active role on the part of geographers. Geographers, and geography as a discipline, are well suited to this challenge, and as islands of researchers coalesce into a synergistic “mainland community” of cooperative investigation into GSTs the result will be a well-woven fabric of socially responsible technology

Economic Justice · Emerging technologies · Engineering ethics · Environmental ethics · Geography · Geospatial analysis · Political science · Remote sensing · Sociology · Computer Science · Engineering · Geographic Information Systems Studies · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Historical Geography and Geographical Thought · Law