The toolsets described below are meant to give undergraduates (and graduates students as well, in the Practising Sustainable Development and ICT4D streams) at Royal Holloway confidence as they step forward to make claims about the social implications and effects of geospatial technologies. The combination of the two is a means of counter-mapping hegemonies, powerful mapmaking interests, and negative stereotypes in a series of efforts often aimed at ‘changing the world.’
Beyond ‘bums in seats’ and the known quantity of tuition
that brings in, what is the impact of a manual used in teaching an
undergraduate class? I was approached
one year by an administrative staff member asking me to quantify the amount of
‘stuff’ undergrads were taking away from my class, measured in terms of
pages. I could quite happily point to
all of the following (at 140 students per year in the first two years; and half that in the third year, you can do the 'impact' math):
My “Manual of Counter-Mapping” (https://www.academia.edu/8361097/MANUAL_OF_COUNTERMAPPING)
is mandatory reading for all third year undergraduates enrolled in my course
Critical GIS and the Geoweb. I’ve been
approached by some of my students in recent years telling me that they’re often
now administered tests of their GIS skills before being granted admission to
postgraduate programmes (e.g. MSc in spatial science). Several others have obtained gainful
employment in industry in part through demonstrated knowledge obtained through three years of GIS practical sessions at Royal Holloway.
Written in response to demand for more maps in undergraduate dissertations is “GIS for dissertations”
(https://www.academia.edu/15030342/GIS_for_Dissertations). This manual is required reading for students
considering dissertation topics in their first or second years, but some use it
in the third year as well. The manual
goes through increasing levels of sophistication for the use of geospatial
technologies in support, and as drivers of, answering undergraduate level
research questions. GIS can thus be seen
as a tool ‘after the fact’ for adding maps, or it can be seen as a
methodologically sophisticated mode of critical thinking for weaving the very
fabric of the dissertation (its data, observations, and findings) itself.
The GPS handbook
(https://www.academia.edu/17308958/GPS_handbook)
is another I wrote after conducting a walking ethnography of Egham, the village
in which Royal Holloway is situated. The
purpose of the manual is practical, with tips such as the use of GPS, camera,
and notebook in conjunction for producing rigour and rich qualitative data
towards generating research questions.
It covers several aspects of mapping, including the use of Google Earth
for visualising traversed routes in the landscape; alongside suggestions for
loading qualitative data into industry standard GIS software.
How to make a map
(https://www.academia.edu/17309008/How_to_make_a_map)
is a general purpose guide intended for those who might knock on my door in a
rush, stating that they need a map for their paper, book, conference
presentation, or what have you. The
guide explains what it takes to make a map, pointing out that ‘quick fix’
solutions such as Google maps often contain no cartography at all. The cartographer has been announced as dead
in recent years (e.g. by Denis Wood), but we demonstrate conclusively in our
undergraduate classrooms that not only is this false, it is part
of what is becoming a damaging stereotype of the cartographer as
someone suspicious, marginal, and at best a ‘hopeful monster.’ Think Ben Whishaw in Skyfall, or the
cartographer in the movie Spy Game (Kent, 2015).
We have physical geographers joining the efforts, taking
political stances on terrain mapping, tracking, and securitising geospatial
technologies.
References:
Kent, Alexander.
2015. “A Profession Less Ordinary? The Life, Death and Resurrection of Cartography.” Bulletin
of the Society of Cartographers.
48(1&2). 7-16.
