Examining the values that are embedded in the processes and technologies of participatory GIS

Examining the values that are

embedded in the processes and

technologies of participatory GIS

Acknowledgement

This talk would not be possible without the

generosity of the many people and

communities that we have worked with

over the years…

Acknowledgement

… and the funders, project partners, and sponsors that we’ve worked with (and will work with in the future)

Outline

• Public Participation GIS (PPGIS) as a

socio-technical practice

• Values in PPGIS

• Values and technology: Andrew

Feenberg’s mapping and deep

democratisation

• Explicitly integrating values and process

in technology

• Where next?

Participatory GIS: context

1980s

• Participatory Rural Appraisal

• Participatory Learning and Action

1990s

• Public Participation GIS (PPGIS)

• Participatory GIS (PGIS)

2000s

• Volunteered / Crowdsourced Geographic information

• Participatory Sensing

2010s

• Citizen Science

APB-CMX Harry Wood 2010

Chauffeurs, facilitators & technology

Aurigi, A., Batty, S., Bloomfield, D., Boott, R., Clark, J., Haklay, M., Harrison, C., Heppell, K., Moreley, J. and Thornton, C.

(1999), UCL Brownfield Research Network, University College London, London, UK, 42 pp

1998

Technical: Commercial Desktop GIS, government

environmental information, desktop

computers

Social: Facilitated participatory process, low level familiarity

with technology

2003

In house development by a green IT company,

costly basemap

Collaborative deliberative process,

paper focused

2006

Google mapping & API, ease of development

and use

Haklay, M.. 2006, How to build a Green GIS from the bottom up?, Israeli Geographers Association Annual Meeting, Tel Aviv,

Israel, December 17-18

Collaborative deliberative process,

paper focused

2007

Community led software development,

participatory data collection

Haklay, M. and Weber, P., 2008, OpenStreetMap – User Generated Street Map, IEEE Pervasive Computing. October-December

2008:12-18.

Mapping Parties, Pub meetups, self-organised/IRC coordination

Community air quality monitoring 2016

Decoupled front end/back end software

for community mapping, APIs

Structured process, both community led

and initiated deliberately, digital

Ellul, C., Francis, L., and Haklay, M., 2012, Engaging with local communities: A review of three years of community mapping.

Urban and Regional Data Management, UDMS Annual 2011 - Proceedings of the Urban Data Management Society Symposium

pp. 165 - 177

• From the start, PPGIS was both limited

and enabled by technological aspects:

hardware, software, data, and network

speed

• The “Public Participation” part means

that it is embedded in complex and

detailed social practices

PPGIS as socio-technical practice

PPGIS AND VALUES

Examining the values that are embedded in the processes and technologies

of participatory GIS

• As if being socio-technical is not enough…

• PPGIS is a valued-laden practice

• Moreover, PPGIS is mostly about

expressing the values. Otherwise, usual

instrumentalist/utilitarian/technocratic/

empiricist practices should apply

Values

• Ensuring societal benefits from technology

Values in PPGIS

• Respecting lay, local and traditional

knowledge

Values in PPGIS

• Community, collective views, addressing

inequities

Values in PPGIS

• Maintaining scientific standards, ensuring

quality, empowerment

Values in PPGIS

• Supporting wider societal and

environmental goals

Values in PPGIS

• Democratisation

Values in PPGIS

• Representation, giving voice

Values in PPGIS

• Inclusion (passive or assertive)

Values in PPGIS

Values

• Address social or environmental justice

• Inclusion

• Democratisation

• Control & Self-determination

• Egalitarian production of knowledge

• Respect to lay, local and traditional knowledge

• Relinking to nature

• Individual vs. community

• Data validity, scientific standards

• Not wasting participants time

• Ensuring efficient, effective, and economic participation

• Securing decision making by majorities/loud participants vs. including minorities

• Contribution to wider societal goals (e.g. science)

• Meaningful & flourishing human relationships

• “The Good Life”

VALUES IN TECHNOLOGY



Thinking through technology

©Stock.XCHNG

©Stock.XCHNG

• The prevalence of the instrumentalist

view: technology is value-free, and

therefore it is open to any use

• Digital technology is being promoted by

emphasising the up-sides, and not

mentioning, or even ignoring, downsides

and side-effect

Two common challenges

Feenberg‘s philosophy of technology

Main positions in Philosophy of

Technology

Technology is: Autonomous Humanly Controlled

Neutral (complete

separation of means and ends)

Determinism

(traditional Marxism)

Instrumentalism (liberal

faith in progress)

Value-laden(means form a way of life that includes ends)

Substantivism (means and

ends linked in a system)

Critical Theory (choice of

alternative means-ends systems)

Source: Feenberg, A. (1999) Questioning Technology, Routledge, New York.

Feenberg’s Deep Democratisation

• ‘Technical representation is not primarily

about the selection of a trusted

personnel, but involves the embodiment

of social and political demands in

technical codes.’

• Technology can be also change from

within, through an intervention by the

users

Source: Feenberg, A. (1999) Questioning Technology, Routledge, New York.

INTEGRATING VALUES IN PPGIS

TECHNOLOGY & PROCESSES



• Integrate technology with a social

process, and take account of the context

ExCiteS/MfC Guiding principles

Wider context

Social context

Mapping

• Politics

• Economics

• Local inclusiveness

• Technical ability

• Views / Perceptions

• Facts / Evidence

• Directed process, with deliberate open

elements to ensure co-design and local

control


Introduction to existing

public information

General perception mapping

Discussion & initial

priorities setting

Digitisation, visualisation

and discussion

Website and online map

Citizen Science and

data gathering

• Work with people where they are, don’t

expect them to come to you (physically,

and digitally)


• Keep it simple, in order to make it

inclusive (no cutting edge tech)


ExCiteS/MfC technologies

http://geokey.org.uk/

Community Maps

Mapping for Change Process

Introduction to existing public

information

General perception mapping

Discussion & initial priorities

setting

Digitisation, visualisation and

discussion

Website and online map

Citizen Science and data gathering

Haklay, M., and Francis, L., forthcoming 2017. Participatory GIS and community-based citizen science for environmental justice

action, in Chakraborty, J., Walker, G. and Holifield, R.(eds.), Handbook of Environmental Justice, Routledge

Earthquake preparedness

• Reach people where they are: linking to

social media outlets

• Simplify: process is deliberately simple

and limited in analysis, with ability of

exporting information for further analysis

• Community control: moderation,

different levels of access

• Representation: visualisation and icons

through participatory processes

GeoKey/Community Maps

Roick, O., Haklay, M., and Ellul, C.. 2016, GeoKey - open infrastructure for

community mapping and science, Human Computation

Engagement: Free, Prior Informed Consent

(FPIC)

Participatory software design

Participatory Software design

Training and support

Monitoring poaching

• Respecting local knowledge: designing

icons in the field with participants

• Data control: acting as custodians in

terms of managing the information

• Community vs Individuals: FPIC,

community protocol.

• Democratisation, giving voice:

technology and process to ensure

inclusion

Sapelli/GeoKey

Stevens, M., Vitos, M., Altenbuchner, M., Conquest, G., Lewis, J. and Haklay, M.,

2014, Taking Participatory Citizen Science to Extremes, IEEE Pervasive

Computing, 13(2):20-29

• Integrating values into PPGIS technologies

is possible, but does not stop using it as a

means to a different ends:

– Using Sapelli to help navigate legal details of

logging permits and laws

– Using Community Maps to collaboratively

map experiences of Concord

– Using GeoKey for community preparedness

checklists with alerts

Deep democratisation?

WHERE NEXT?

ExCiteS & Mapping for Change

Experimenting with maps

51

Tap&Map

Summary

• PPGIS is a socio-technical, value-laden

process and practice

• Values should be expressed in the social

practices and in the technologies that are

used

• Generic technologies can be used, with some

compromises and trade-offs

• Developing technologies also require

compromises and trade-offs

• Follow us:– http://www.ucl.ac.uk/excites

– Twitter: @UCL_ExCiteS

– Blog: http://uclexcites.wordpress.com

The work of ExCiteS is supported by EPSRC, ERC, EU FP7, EU H2020, RGS, Esri, Forest People Program, Forests Monitor, WRI and all the people in communities that we’ve worked with over the years