A Web of Expectations: Evolving Relationships in Community Participatory Geoweb Projects

Authors

  • P A Johnson University of Waterloo
  • J M Corbett University of British Columbia- Okanagan
  • C Gore Ryerson University
  • P Robinson Ryerson University
  • P Allen Gorp Consulting
  • R Sieber McGill University

Keywords:

Geoweb, community development, technology implementation, social context, stakeholders

Abstract

New forms of participatory online geospatial technology have the potential to support citizen engagement in governance and community development. The mechanisms of this contribution have predominantly been cast in the literature as ‘citizens as sensors’, with individuals acting as a distributed network, feeding academics or government with data. To counter this dominant perspective, we describe our shared experiences with the development of three community-based Geospatial Web 2.0 (Geoweb) projects, where community organizations were engaged as partners, with the general aim to bring about social change in their communities through technology development and implementation. Developing Geoweb tools with community organizations was a process that saw significant evolution of project expectations and relationships. As Geoweb tool development encountered the realities of technological development and implementation in a community context, this served to reduce organizational enthusiasm and support for projects as a whole. We question the power dynamics at play between university researchers and organizations, including project financing, both during development and in the long term. How researchers managed, or perpetuated, many of the popular myths of the Geoweb, namely that it is inexpensive and easy to use (thought not to build, perhaps) impacted the success of each project and the sustainability of relationships between researcher and organization. Ultimately, this research shows the continuing gap between the promise of online geospatial technology, and the realities of its implementation at the community level.

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Published

2015-09-26

How to Cite

Johnson, P. A., Corbett, J. M., Gore, C., Robinson, P., Allen, P., & Sieber, R. (2015). A Web of Expectations: Evolving Relationships in Community Participatory Geoweb Projects. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 14(3), 827–848. Retrieved from https://acme-journal.org/index.php/acme/article/view/1235