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Critical GIS Grad Seminar Syllabus



WK1: Seminar introduction; scientific and technological knowledges


  1. Demeritt, David. 1996. "Social theory and the reconstruction of science and geography." Transactions of the IBG no. 21 (3):484-503.
  2. Hinchliffe, Steve. 1996. "Technology, power, and space -- the means and ends of geographies of technology." Environment and Planning D: Society and Space no. 14:659-682.
  3. Kirsch, Scott. 1995. "The incredible shrinking world? Technology and the production of space." Environment and Planning D: Society and Space no. 13:529-555.
  4. Barnes, Trevor J. 2008. "Geography's underworld: The military-industrial complex, mathematical modelling and the quantitative revolution." Geoforum no. 39:3-16.
Space, Knowledge, Practice

WK2: Theorizing (digital) spaces

  1. [Chapter 4] Kitchin, Rob, and Martin Dodge. 2011. Code/space : software and everyday life, Software studies. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
  2. Graham, Stephen. 2005. "Software-sorted geographies." Progress in Human Geography no. 29 (5):562-580.
  3. Zook, Matthew A., and Mark Graham. 2007. "Mapping DigiPlace: geocoded Internet data and the representation of place." Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design no. 34:466-482.
  4. Rose-Redwood, Reuben Sky. 2012. "With Numbers in Place: Security, Territory, and the Production of Calculable Space." Annals of the Association of American Geographers no. 102 (2):295-319.
WK3: Spatial technology as mode of knowledge-making

  1. [Chapter 2] Bodenhamer, David J., John Corrigan, and Trevor M. Harris. 2010. The spatial humanities : GIS and the future of humanities scholarship, Spatial humanities. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
  2. Sheppard, Eric. 2005. "Knowledge Production through Critical GIS: Genealogy and Prospects." Cartographica no. 40 (4):5-21.
  3. Cosgrove, Denis E. 2008. "Cultural cartography: maps and mapping in cultural geography." Annales de Géographie no. 117 (660-661):159-178.
  4. Warf, Barney, and Daniel Z. Sui. 2010. "From GIS to neogeography: ontological implications and theories of truth." Annals of GIS no. 16 (4):197-209.
WK4: Maps and mappings as spatial practice

  1. [Chapter 9] Certeau, Michel de. 1984. The practice of everyday life. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  2. Kitchin, Robert M. 2008. "The Practices of Mapping." Cartographica no. 43 (3):211-215.
  3. Krygier, John, and Denis Wood. 2009. "Ce n'est pas le monde (This is not the world)." In Rethinking Maps : New frontiers in cartographic theory, edited by Martin Dodge, Rob Kitchin and Chris Perkins, 189-219. London: Routledge.
  4. Moore, Antoni. 2009. Maps as Comics, Comics as Maps. Paper read at 24th International Cartography Conference, 15-21 Nov., at Santiago, Chile.
  5. Kwan, Mei-Po. 2007. "Affecting Geospatial Technologies: Toward a Feminist Politics of Emotion." The Professional Geographer no. 59 (1):27-34.
Action, Inequality, Surveillance

WK5: New spatial media, digital activism, crises

  1. Parks, Lisa. 2009. "Digging into Google Earth: An analysis of "Crisis in Darfur"." Geoforum no. 40:535-545.
  2. Zook, Matthew A., Mark Graham, Taylor Shelton, and Sean Gorman. 2010. "Volunteered geographic information and crowdsourcing disaster relief: A case study of the Haitian earthquake." World Medical & Health Policy no. 2 (2):7-33.
  3. Bennett, W. Lance, and Alexandra Segerberg. 2011. "Digital Media and the Personalization of Collective Action: Social technology and the organization of protests against the global economic crisis." Information , Communication & Society no. 14 (6):770-799.
  4. Lin, Wen. Forthcoming. "Situating performative neogeography: Tracing, mapping, and performing "Everyone's East Lake"." Environment and Planning A.
WK6: Digital social/spatial inequalities

  1. Warf, Barney. 2001. "Segueways into cyberspace: multiple geographies of the digital divide." Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design no. 28 (1):3-19.
  2. Graham, Mark. 2011. "Time machines and virtual portals: the spatialities of the digital divide." Progress in Development Studies no. 11 (3):211-227.
  3. Crutcher, Michael, and Matthew A. Zook. 2009. "Placemarks and waterlines: Racialized cyberscapes in post-Katrina Google Earth." Geoforum no. 40:523-534.
  4. Halford, Susan, and Mike Savage. 2010. "Reconceptualizing digital social inequality." Information, Communication & Society no. 13 (7):937-955.
WK7: Seeing, knowing, surveilling

  1. Graham, Stephen. 1998. "Spaces of surveillant simulation: new technologies, digital representations, and material geographies." Environment and Planning D: Society and Space no. 16:483-504.
  2. Graham, Stephen, and David Wood. 2003. "Digitizing surveillance: categorization, space, inequity." Critical Social Policy no. 23 (2):227-248.
  3. Perkins, Chris, and Martin Dodge. 2009. "Satellite imagery and the spectacle of secret spaces." Geoforum no. 40:546-560.
  4. Elwood, Sarah A., and Agnieszka Leszczynski. 2011. "Privacy, reconsidered: New representations, data practices, and the geoweb." Geoforum no. 42:6-15.
Extending the GIS & Society Tradition

WK8: GIS Wars and the emergence of GIS & Society

  1. Taylor, Peter J. 1990. "GKS." Political Geography Quarterly no. 9:211-212.
  2. Openshaw, Stan. 1991. "A view on the GIS crisis in geography, or, using GIS to put Humpty-Dumpty back together again." Environment and Planning A no. 23 (5):621-628.
  3. Taylor, Peter J., and M. Overton. 1991. "Further thoughts on geography and GIS." Environment and Planning A no. 23 (8):1087-1090.
  4. Openshaw, Stan. 1992. "Further thoughts on geography and GIS: a reply." Environment and Planning A no. 24 (4):463-466.
  5. Smith, Neil. 1992. "History and philosophy of geography: real wars, theory wars." Progress in Human Geography no. 16:257-271.
  6. Lake, Robert W. 1993. "Planning and applied geography: positivism, ethics, and geographic information systems." Progress in Human Geography no. 17 (3):404-413.
  7. Sheppard, Eric. 1995. "GIS and Society: Towards a Research Agenda." Cartography and Geographic Information Systems no. 22 (1):5-16.
WK9: Formative moments in critical GIS

  1. Schuurman, Nadine. 2000. "Trouble in the heartland: GIS and its critics in the 1990s." Progress in Human Geography no. 24 (4):569-590.
  2. Schuurman, Nadine, and Geraldine Pratt. 2002. "Care of the Subject: feminism and critiques of GIS." Gender, Place and Culture no. 9 (3):291-299.
  3. Kwan, Mei-Po. 2002. "Is GIS for women?  Reflections on the critical discourse in the 1990s." Gender, Place and Culture no. 9 (3):271-279.
  4. Elwood, Sarah A. 2006. "Critical Issues in Participatory GIS: Deconstructions, Reconstructions, and New Research Directions." Transactions in GIS no. 10 (5):693-708.
WK10: Qualitative GIS

  1. Knigge, LaDona, and Meghan Cope. 2006. "Grounded visualization: integrating the analysis of qualitative and quantitative data through grounded theory and visualization." Environment and Planning A no. 38:2021-2037.
  2. Kwan, Mei-Po, and LaDona Knigge. 2006. "Doing qualitative research using GIS: an oxymoronic endeavor?" Environment and Planning A no. 38:1999-2002.
  3. Pavlovskaya, Marianna. 2009. "Breaking the silence: Non-quantitative GIS unearthed." In Qualitative GIS: A Mixed-Methods Approach, edited by Sarah A. Elwood and Meghan Cope. London: Sage.
  4. Wilson, Matthew W. 2009. "Towards a genealogy of qualitative GIS." In Qualitative GIS: A Mixed Methods Approach, edited by Meghan Cope and Sarah A. Elwood, 156-170. London: Sage.
Doing, Acting, Practicing

WK11: Design

This week we’ll meet in the computer lab in CB313, to pool our collective knowledges of (digital) spatial technologies and design an interruption, engagement, performance, representation, etc.

WK12: Act

We act! At this class meeting, or perhaps over the duration of the week, we will implement our design discussion of the previous week.

WK13: Reflect

This week we draw to a close our previous week of action by reflecting on these practices.

Technoscientific Subjects

WK15: Digital subjects, digital futures

  1. Kinsley, Sam. 2010. "Representing 'things to come': feeling the visions of future technologies." Environment and Planning A no. 42:2771-2790.
  2. Galloway, Anne. 2004. "Intimations of everyday life: ubiquitous computing and the city." Cultural Studies no. 18 (2/3):384-408.
  3. Wilson, Matthew W. 2012. "Location-based services, conspicuous mobility, and the location-aware future." Geoforum.
  4. Ash, James. 2010. "Architectures of affect: anticipating and manipulating the event in processes of videogame design and testing." Environment and Planning D: Society and Space no. 28:653-671.
WK16: Attention, capacity, care

  1. Stiegler, Bernard. 2010. Biopower, psychopower and the logic of the scapegoat. Posthuman Destinies, http://www.sciy.org/2010/03/03/biopower-psychopower-and-the-logic-of-the-scapegoat-by-bernard-stiegler/.
  2. [Intro and Chapter 3] Malabou, Catherine. 2008. What should we do with our brain? 1st ed, Perspectives in continental philosophy. New York: Fordham University Press.
  3. Crogan, Patrick, and Sam Kinsley. 2012. "Paying attention: Towards a critique of the attention economy." Culture Machine no. 13:2-29.
  4. Stiegler, Bernard. 2012. "Relational ecology and the digital pharmakon." Culture Machine no. 13:1-19.

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