The generative potential of community-based geographic information systems

Dirk Hovorka, Bond University
N A. Auerbach

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Interim status: Citation only.

Hovorka, D.S. & Auerbach, N.A. (2010). The generative potential of community-based geographic information systems. In T. Thatchenkery, D. Cooperrider, and M. Avital (Eds.), Positive design and appreciative construction: From sustainable development to sustainable value. Bingley: Emerald. ISBN: 9780857243690

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Copyright Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2010

Abstract

An expanded perspective on Information System design paradigms reveals that information systems have a generative capacity, which enables reframing and recasting reality based upon alternative values. By synthesizing research in sustainable value, generative capacity and community-based Geographic Information Systems (GIS), we propose that information systems can empower communities to create Community Sustainable Value as they face increasing environmental and growth challenges. This surfaces the opportunity for the design and implementation of GIS to reduce information asymmetry, empower communities, and provide a history of decision-making, thereby enabling monitoring of the components of community sustainable value. Community members may incorporate local data, present alternative development/conservation scenarios, and gain a voice in the planning process. As web-enabled GIS and low cost analytic systems become accessible, the system design process itself represents an opportunity for situated social action in the formation of community sustainable values. Synthesizing these perspectives, we put forward the view that GIS development and use at a community level is a potentially constructive social process of value formation which can enable communities to envision their own futures.