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About this book
Geographic Information Systems are an essential tool for analyzing and representing quantitative spatial data.
"Qualitative GIS" explains the recent integration of qualitative research with Geographical Information Systems. With a detailed contextualising introduction, the text is organised in three sections: Representation which examines how researchers are using software techniques to create new types of representations - either 'quantifying qualitative data' or using non-numerical data in GIS to provide texture and context; Analysis which discusses the new techniques of analysis that are emerging at the margins between qualitative research and GIS, this in the wider context of a critical review of mixed-methods in geographical research; and, Theory which questions how knowledge is produced, showing how ideas of 'science' and 'truth' inform research, and demonstrates how qualitative GIS can be used to interrogate discussions of power, community, and social action.
Making reference to representation, analysis, and theory throughout, the text shows how to frame questions, collect data, analyze results, and represent findings in a truly integrated way. An important addition to the mixed methods literature, "Qualitative GIS" will be the standard reference for upper-level students and researchers using qualitative methods and Geographic Information Systems.
Contents
Introduction: Qualitative GIS - Forging mixed methods through representations, analytical innovations, and conceptual engagements - Sarah Elwood and Meghan Cope Breaking the silence: Non-quantitative GIS unearthed - Marianna Pavlovskaya Representations Metadata as a site for imbuing GIS with qualitative information - Nadine Schuurman "How do you show both?" Multiple representations, significations, and epistemologies in community-based GIS - Sarah Elwood Representing our reality: Geographic information technologies, local knowledge, and change - Jon Corbett and Giacomo Rambaldi Analytical Interventions and Innovations Grounded Visualization and scale: A recursive analysis of community spaces - LaDona Knigge and Meghan Cope Computer-Aided Qualitative GIS: A software-level integration of qualitative research and GIS - Jin-Kyu Jung Conceptual Engagements Into the image and beyond: Affective visual geographies and GIScience - Stuart Aitken and Jim Craine Recalling insider-outsider debate: Towards a genealogy of qualitative GIS - Matthew Wilson Conclusion: For Qualitative GIS - Meghan Cope and Sarah Elwood
Customer Reviews
Edited By: Sarah Elwood and Meghan S Cope
224 pages
'An important and meaningful, even an innovative, resource in its field of inquiry. It makes a major contribution to geography by describing, presenting and analyzing the way in which qualitative information may be included in geographic information systems. GIS technology in general is not merely a tool for processing quantitative or qualitative spatial data. Qualitative GIS in particular constitutes a knowledge base with philosophical (ontological and epistemological) foundations. The incorporation of qualitative methods into GIS produces a whole that is "greater than the sum of its parts". Moreover, the book contributes to our understanding of the process in the social sciences by giving a visual presentation of social and spatial phenomena, and thus its contribution goes beyond the geographic discipline' - Geography Research Forum
'Qualitative GIS is coming of age, and this definitive collection explains why it deserves broad attention. These carefully selected essays by leading researchers, organized around a broad conception of qualitative GIS that extends beyond multi-media data integration to embrace new software tools and interpretive, situated epistemologies, will push readers to rethink not only their preconceptions about qualitative GIS, but also about GI science and critical GIS. GIS researchers, practicioners, observers and users will find much to chew on here' - Professor Eric Sheppard, University of Minnesota, USA