Participatory Learning and Action 54:

Mapping for change: practice, technologies and communication

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PLA 54
IIED and CTA, April 2006, 152pp. Price $32.00

Guest editors: Giacomo Rambaldi; Jon Corbett; Mike McCall; Rachel Olson; Julius Muchemi; Peter Kwaku Kyem; Daniel Weiner; with Robert Chambers.

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“… it may take more than a thorough read of this IIED/CTA co-publication to become an expert on PGIS - but there could be no better starting place.”

Dr William Critchley, CIS-Centre for International Cooperation.

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PGIS is an evolved form of community mapping, the result of a spontaneous merger of Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) methods with Geographic information Technologies and Systems (GIT&S).

If used appropriately, PGIS practice may have profound implications and stimulate innovation and social change. PGIS aims at placing control on access and use of culturally sensitive spatial data in the hands of those who generated the data thereby protecting traditional knowledge and wisdom from external exploitation.

The articles represent a considerable depth of experience, documenting established and cutting-edge tools and a selection of articles on theory and reflections from practice – including ethical considerations, potential pitfalls and other lessons learnt from experience.

PLA 54 is particularly timely as it highlights and documents a significant coming-of-age in PGIS practice, which over the last decade has grown into a networked and united community of practitioners.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Editorial

Glossary of PGIS terms

THEME SECTION

1. Overview: Mapping for Change - the emergence of a new practice
by Jon Corbett, Giacomo Rambaldi, Peter Kyem, Dan Weiner, Rachel Olson, Julius Muchemi, Mike McCall and Robert Chambers.

TOOL-BASED CASE STUDIES

2. Using Community Information Systems to express traditional knowledge embedded in the landscape
by Jon Corbett and Peter Keller

3. Resource use, development planning, and safeguarding intangible cultural heritage: lessons from Fiji Islands
by Giacomo Rambaldi, Silika Tuivanuavou, Penina Namata, Paulo Vanualailai, Sukulu Rupeni, and Etika Rupeni

(NB the Fiji Island project was recently selected as one of the World Summit Award 2007 Winners in the Category e-Culture ).

4. Finding a common ground in multi-party land use conflicts using PGIS: lessons from Ghana
by Peter A. Kwaku Kyem

5. Is there life after tenure mapping?
by Peter Poole

ISSUE-BASED CASE STUDIES

6. PGIS as a sustained (and sustainable?) practice: First Nation Experiences in Treaty 8 BC, Canada
by Craig Candler, Rachel Olson, Steven DeRoy, and Kieran Broderick

7. A participatory approach to monitoring slum conditions: an example from Ethiopia
by Tsion Lemma, Richard Sliuzas and Monika Kuffer

8. Capacity development and PGIS for land demarcation: innovations from Nicaragua
by Sylvanie Jardinet

9. The power of maps: cartography with indigenous people in the Brazilian Amazon
by the inhabitants of Moikarako, Pascale de Robert, Jean-François Faure, and Anne-Elisabeth Laques

10. Land and natural resource mapping by San Communities and NGOs: experiences from Namibia
by Julie Taylor and Carol Murphy with Simon Mayes, Elvis Mwilima, Nathaniel Nuulimba and Sandra Slater-Jones

11. Participatory GIS and local knowledge enhancement for community carbon forestry planning: an example from Cameroon
by Peter A. Minang and Michael K. McCall

THEORY AND REFLECTIONS FROM PRACTICE

12. Mapping projects: identifying obstacles, finding solutions
by Mac Chapin

13. Mapping power: ironic effects of spatial information technology
by Jefferson Fox, Krisnawati Suryanata, Peter Hershock and Albertus Hadi Pramono

14. Practical ethics for PGIS practitioners, facilitators, technology intermediaries and researchers
by Giacomo Rambaldi, Robert Chambers, Mike McCall and Jefferson Fox.

15. Precision for whom? Mapping ambiguity and certainty in (participatory) GIS

by Mike McCall

GENERAL SECTION

16. The world in a suitcase: psychosocial support using artwork with refugee children in South Africa
by Glynis Clacherty

17. The role of local elites in development projects: an experience from Sudan
by Dipankar Datta

TIPS FOR TRAINERS

18. The Snowball technique

by Mike McCall, Holly Ashley and Giacomo Rambaldi

In Touch

Includes reviews of resources related to PGIS including book reviews and websites

RCPLA Network pages

RELATED RESOURCES

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The articles for this special issue were selected from papers presented at the Mapping for Change: International Conference of Spatial Information Management and Communication held in Nairobi, Kenya, 7th-10th September 2005. This special issue was supported by the following organisations: