Qualitative GIS

Qualitative GIS
Author: Meghan Cope
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2009-07-09
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1446244563

Geographic Information Systems are an essential tool for analyzing and representing quantitative spatial data. Qualitative GIS explains the recent integration of qualitative research with Geographical Information Systems With a detailed contextualising introduction, the text is organised in three sections: Representation: examines how researchers are using GIS to create new types of representations; working with spatial data, maps, and othervisualizations to incorporate multiple meanings and to provide texture and context. Analysis: discusses the new techniques of analysis that are emerging at the margins between qualitative research and GIS, this in the wider context of a critical review of mixed-methods in geographical research Theory: questions how knowledge is produced, showing how ideas of ′science′ and ′truth′ inform research, and demonstrates how qualitative GIS can be used to interrogate discussions of power, community, and social action Making reference to representation, analysis, and theory throughout, the text shows how to frame questions, collect data, analyze results, and represent findings in a truly integrated way. An important addition to the mixed methods literature, Qualitative GIS will be the standard reference for upper-level students and researchers using qualitative methods and Geographic Information Systems.

The Spatial Humanities

The Spatial Humanities
Author: David J. Bodenhamer
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 222
Release: 2010
Genre: History
ISBN: 0253355052

Applying the analytical tools of GIS to new fields of research

Geographic Information Systems for the Social Sciences

Geographic Information Systems for the Social Sciences
Author: Steven J. Steinberg
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2005-08-04
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1506319610

"The Steinbergs have produced a very relevant book for the times. . . . While many books have emerged on the details of GIS, few resources exist to help teach the merger of GIS with more standard research methods. The Steinbergs accomplish this goal in a way that is readily accessible even to undergraduates." —Theodore Wagenaar, Miami University "The Steinbergs take the reader through all of the essential foundations of GIS... using examples drawn from the social sciences throughout. This book will be essential reading for any social scientist looking for a straightforward introduction to GIS." —Mike Goodchild, University of California, Santa Barbara Geographic Information Systems for the Social Sciences: Investigating Space and Place is the first book to take a cutting-edge approach to integrating spatial concepts into the social sciences. In this text, authors Steven J. Steinberg and Sheila L. Steinberg simplify GIS (Geographic Information Systems) for practitioners and students in the social sciences through the use of examples and actual program exercises so that they can become comfortable incorporating this research tool into their repertoire and scope of interest. The authors provide learning objectives for each chapter, chapter summaries, links to relevant Web sites, as well as suggestions for student research projects. Key Features: Presents step-by-step guidance for integrating GIS with both quantitative and qualitative research Provides an introduction to the use of GIS technology written at an accessible level for individuals without GIS experience while providing depth and guidance appropriate to experienced GIS users Offers an associated interactive Web site—http://www.socialsciencegis.org—to provide a forum for sharing experience and ideas, input to the authors, and a variety of other examples, data, and information related to the topics covered in the text Geographic Information Systems for the Social Sciences offers a nuts-and-bolts introduction to GIS for undergraduate and graduate students taking methods courses across the social sciences. It is an excellent textbook for courses dedicated to GIS research and its applications in the fields of Sociology, Criminology, Public Health, Geography, Anthropology, Political Science, and Environmental Studies. It is also a valuable resource for any social scientist or practitioner interested in applying GIS technology to his or her work. An Instructor′s Resource CD, containing PowerPoint slides, test questions, and suggested Web site links, among other items, is also available to all professors adopting this text.

Key Concepts and Techniques in GIS

Key Concepts and Techniques in GIS
Author: Jochen Albrecht
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 121
Release: 2007-08-20
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1849206511

Key Concepts and Techniques in GIS is a concise overview of the fundamental ideas that inform geographic information science. It provides detailed descriptions of the concepts and techniques that anyone using GIS software must fully understand to analyse spatial data. Short and clearly focussed chapters provide explanations of: spatial relationships and spatial data the creation of digital data, the use and access of existing data, the combination of data the use of modelling techniques and the essential functions of map algebra spatial statistics and spatial analysis geocomputation - including discussion of neural networks, cellular automata, and agent-based modelling Illustrated throughout with explanatory figures, the text also includes a glossary, cross referenced to discussion in the text. Written very much from a user′s perspective, Key Concepts and Techniques in GIS is highly readable refresher course for intermediate level students and practitioners of GIS in the social and the natural sciences.

The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Geography

The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Geography
Author: Dydia DeLyser
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 449
Release: 2009-11-18
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 1446206564

Exploring the dynamic growth, change, and complexity of qualitative research in human geography, The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Geography brings together leading scholars in the field to examine its history, assess the current state of the art, and project future directions. "In its comprehensive coverage, accessible text, and range of illustrative studies, past and present, the Handbook has established an impressive new standard in presenting qualitative methods to geographers." - David Ley, University of British Columbia Moving beyond textbook rehearsals of standard issues, the Handbook shows how empirical details of qualitative research can be linked to the broader social, theoretical, political, and policy concerns of qualitative geographers and the communities within which they work. The book is organized into three sections: Part I: Openings engages the history of qualitative geography, and details the ways that research, and the researcher′s place within it, are conceptualized within broader academic, political, and social currents. Part II: Encounters and Collaborations describes the different strategies of inquiry that qualitative geographers use, and the tools and techniques that address the challenges that arise in the research process. Part III: Making Sense explores the issues and processes of interpretation, and the ways researchers communicate their results. Retrospective as well as prospective in its approach, this is geography′s first peer-to-peer engagement with qualitative research detailing how to conceive, carry out and communicate qualitative research in the twenty-first century. Suitable for postgraduate students, academics, and practitioners alike, this is the methods resource for researchers in human geography.

New Lines

New Lines
Author: Matthew W. Wilson
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2017-11-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1452955034

New Lines takes the pulse of a society increasingly drawn to the power of the digital map, examining the conceptual and technical developments of the field of geographic information science as this work is refracted through a pervasive digital culture. Matthew W. Wilson draws together archival research on the birth of the digital map with a reconsideration of the critical turn in mapping and cartographic thought. Seeking to bridge a foundational divide within the discipline of geography—between cultural and human geographers and practitioners of Geographic Information Systems (GIS)—Wilson suggests that GIS practitioners may operate within a critical vacuum and may not fully contend with their placement within broader networks, the politics of mapping, the rise of the digital humanities, the activist possibilities of appropriating GIS technologies, and more. Employing the concept of the drawn and traced line, Wilson treads the theoretical terrain of Deleuze, Guattari, and Gunnar Olsson while grounding their thoughts with the hybrid impulse of the more-than-human thought of Donna Haraway. What results is a series of interventions—fractures in the lines directing everyday life—that provide the reader with an opportunity to consider the renewed urgency of forceful geographic representation. These five fractures are criticality, digitality, movement, attention, and quantification. New Lines examines their traces to find their potential and their necessity in the face of our frenetic digital life.

Historical GIS

Historical GIS
Author: Ian N. Gregory
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 205
Release: 2007-12-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 1139467719

Historical GIS is an emerging field that uses Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to research the geographies of the past. Ian Gregory and Paul Ell's study, first published in 2007, comprehensively defines this field, exploring all aspects of using GIS in historical research. A GIS is a form of database in which every item of data is linked to a spatial location. This technology offers unparalleled opportunities to add insight and rejuvenate historical research through the ability to identify and use the geographical characteristics of data. Historical GIS introduces the basic concepts and tools underpinning GIS technology, describing and critically assessing the visualisation, analytical and e-science methodologies that it enables and examining key scholarship where GIS has been used to enhance research debates. The result is a clear agenda charting how GIS will develop as one of the most important approaches to scholarship in historical geography.

GIS Algorithms

GIS Algorithms
Author: Ningchuan Xiao
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 335
Release: 2015-11-09
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1473933463

Geographic information systems (GIS) have become increasingly important in helping us understand complex social, economic, and natural dynamics where spatial components play a key role. The critical algorithms used in GIS, however, are notoriously difficult to both teach and understand, in part due to the lack of a coherent representation. GIS Algorithms attempts to address this problem by combining rigorous formal language with example case studies and student exercises. Using Python code throughout, Xiao breaks the subject down into three fundamental areas: Geometric Algorithms Spatial Indexing Spatial Analysis and Modelling With its comprehensive coverage of the many algorithms involved, GIS Algorithms is a key new textbook in this complex and critical area of geography.

Ground Truth

Ground Truth
Author: John Pickles
Publisher: Guilford Press
Total Pages: 272
Release: 1995-01-01
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 9780898622959

Professionals who work with grieving families, including psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, family therapists, physicians and nurses who work with dying patients and their families, hospice and patient home-care workers, clergy. The book also serves as a text in courses on bereavement, family development, family and child therapy, and child developmental psychopathology.