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Critical GIS Bibliography
[ maintained by Matthew W. Wilson ]

A Geographer's 'Must-Read' List
What single journal article or book should be required reading of a geographer?


Jeremy Crampton
Associate Professor of Geography
University of Kentucky
... I must admit that the first thing that occurred to me is Brian Harley’s “Deconstructing the Map” originally published in 1989 but still as relevant as ever in the era of “big data” and the geoweb. It’s not a perfect article, but it’s well-written and makes its case for a rethinking of the political agency of representation and knowledge extremely well. You could say it launched critical cartography and GIS.


Sarah Elwood
Professor of Geography
University of Washington
... My contribution for the geographers' must-read list is Pickles' "Representations in an electronic age: Geography, GIS, and democracy" from Ground Truth. It introduced many of the core ideas that paved the way for critical GIS to emerge in the decade that followed. In that sense, it played an important role in helping us think about a central piece of our discipline in new ways. ...


Michael Goodchild
Emeritus Professor of Geography
University of California, Santa Barbara
... I'm tempted to prescribe Abler, Adams, and Gould Spatial Organization, which still seems to me the most concise summary of what a geographer thinks about, though it's now 40 years old. A modern equivalent, though not as visionary or fundamental, might be O'Sullivan and Unwin. I also have much affection for Peter Haggett's The Geographer's Art from 1990 - see my review in The Annals. ...