Ground Truth: The Social Implications of Geographic Information Systems: 11/20/10

Ground Truth: The Social Implications of Geographic Information by John Pickles is an oft-cited book. Having seen it appear in the references of so many of the books and articles I have been reading for my GIS and disaster recovery term paper, I requested a copy of it via Link+ to see if it would be useful for my paper.

The book is a series of essays on GIS and society. There are some articles that argue for GIS (and more broadly cartography) as being a power struggle. Those who make and control the maps have the power over those who don't. Other articles look at the social welfare aspects of GIS and how it can be used and abused in the tracking of demographic or medical information.

While these essays were interesting and informative, none of them were on topic for my paper. I already have so much in the way of background and historical perspective for my paper that I didn't feel that this book had anything more to contribute and if anything was tangential to my topic.

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