Institutional Networks of Association for GIS Use

The Case of an Urban Local Body in India

Bibliographic Data

ID3775432
AuthorsFalguni Mukherjee (0000-0001-9073-2608, Sam Houston State University, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume110
Issue5
Pages1445-1463
Publication date2020-09-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAnnals of the American Association of Geographers (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2469-4452 • E-ISSN: 2469-4460
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/24694452.2019.1691495
OpenAlexW2999497474
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited55

In the past decade, India has witnessed rapid urban transformation leading to a changing urban governance culture in the country. This has prompted a growing push toward informationization of government practices coupled with the government’s ambition of building an information infrastructure. Urban local bodies (ULBs) in particular have become the arena for implementation of planning policies conceptualized by the central government as it strives to manage the urban population and fulfill its information technology ambitions. In this process, there has been a growing use of geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial technologies by Indian ULBs. GIS use by Indian ULBs is highly uneven and variable, however. This unevenness can be explained by using literature on critical GIS and politics of scale. Critical GIS highlights the importance of power relations and institutional structures in an organization’s GIS practices, and politics of scale helps to understand the complexities of network formation and power relations embedded in such networks that facilitate an organization’s GIS use. Through an in-depth case study of Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC), this study demonstrates that active construction of scalar politics and networks of association is key in a ULB’s attempts toward spatial engagement. SMC constructs thematic and territorial networks of association to procure material and discursive resources and uses “scale jumping” as a representational strategy to garner political influence. Such a strategy enables SMC to form alliances with key actors and navigate power structures facilitating their GIS use, reflecting the politicized nature of GIS constructions for urban governance by an Indian ULB

Business · Civil engineering · Corporate governance · Economics · Environmental planning · Environmental resource management · Geographic information system · Geography · Local government · Political science · Politics · Population · Sociology · Spatial analysis · Spatial data infrastructure · Urban planning · Data Management and Algorithms · Data-Driven Disease Surveillance · Engineering · Geographic Information Systems Studies · Public Administration

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub