Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation
 

Technology and meaning in natural resource management : the story-making role of GIS in the CLAMS project

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https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/s1784n807

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  • The working hypothesis for this study is that the introduction of GIS technology into the ancient procedures of map-making has changed the map-making context sufficiently to require a revision of the way we think about, learn from, and use maps, specifically in the public involvement process in natural resource management. The assumption that we jointly know what maps mean, and how to use them, has been carried unchallenged into the vastly changed arena of digital, information-dense, and highly technical map-making, courtesy of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). It has remained unchallenged even as the social context for environmental policy-making is undergoing historic upheaval. GIS fundamentally changes how information is viewed, literally, by many different groups, for its maps and databases contain varying levels of uncertainty, multiple embedded assumptions, potentially privileged knowledge, and considerable power as story-makers, along with unintended and unexplored social consequences. GIS maps/databases are used here as the central refractor of ideas about relationships between scientists and lay audiences; between the post-modern understanding of privilege and social change; and ultimately between technology and meaning, where changing expectations about the role of science in natural resource management resonate most profoundly. Key research questions are: (1) How can GIS maps contribute to mutual learning in the natural resource management arena?, and (2) Which consequences of GIS development could change approaches to natural resource management? The exploratory case study used to address these questions examines GIS maps from the Coastal Landscape Analysis and Modeling Study (CLAMS), a landscape-scale bioregional assessment in western Oregon that draws heavily on GIS technology to illustrate ecological and socioeconomic dynamics and interactions. Findings suggest that use of GIS through time may change the realm of designing and structuring decision problems, adjusting it from a largely science-driven exercise in natural resource management to a more collaborative story-making one. While epistemological differences between scientists and lay audiences remain, they can be offset through such collaboration, with concomitant shifts in power structures that could affect a range of conditions including rates of technology diffusion, and management of a broad transition in how natural resources are perceived and utilized.
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