On the politics and the possibilities of participatory mapping and GIS : using spatial technologies to study common property and land use change among pastoralists in Central Tibet

Bauer, Kenneth

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dc.creator	Bauer, Kenneth
dc.date	2009
dc.date.accessioned	2018-11-20T14:51:49Z
dc.date.available	2018-11-20T14:51:49Z
dc.identifier.uri	http://beu.extension.unicen.edu.ar/xmlui/handle/123456789/358
dc.description	This article critically and reflexively examines the process of applying participatory mapping and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to investigate land use change and common property among pastoralists in Central Tibet. It explores the tensions inherent to participatory mapping in contemporary China and asks if participatory methods of recording and asserting territoriality are a plausible subaltern intervention for Tibetans living under Chinese political rule. In development and research circles, participatory mapping has been discussed and, slowly, tested in the field as a tool for ‘empowerment’. Yet the political currency of literature on participatory (or ‘counter’) mapping has been developed predominantly in contexts where there is a dialogue, however asymmetric, between state and indigenous groups, and where these cartographic interventions can identify and delineate political boundaries in ways that may allow local or indigenous groups some measure of autonomy. This article extends critical geography on participatory mapping and spatial technologies such as GIS by reflecting on their relevance to Central Tibet, which has had a significantly different political history than the locales where indigenous cartographies have been previously deployed. For pastoralists living in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, politically charged dynamics with respect to autonomy and the writ of boundary making preclude any possibility that participatory mapping can ‘empower’ participants or give them greater authority in government negotiations: the scope for political contestation in Tibet is narrow and highly circumscribed. Even though participatory mapping is of limited utility as a tool for mobilization in the Tibetan context, the case study offers possibilities for the uses of participatory mapping and computer-driven spatial methodologies to blend information about land use and common property under different regimes of governance.	es_ES
dc.description	Fil: Bauer, Kenneth. University of Vermont, Estados Unidos	es_ES
dc.format	application/pdf	es_ES
dc.language	eng	es_ES
dc.publisher	SAGE Publications	es_ES
dc.relation	10.1177/1474474008101518	es_ES
dc.rights	Ninguna	es_ES
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess	es_ES
dc.rights	Ninguna	es_ES
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess	es_ES
dc.subject	Cartography	es_ES
dc.subject	China	es_ES
dc.subject	Common property	es_ES
dc.subject	Epistemology	es_ES
dc.subject	Geographic Information Systems (GIS)	es_ES
dc.subject	Land use	es_ES
dc.subject	Participatory mapping	es_ES
dc.subject	Pastoralists	es_ES
dc.subject	Politics	es_ES
dc.subject	Tibet	es_ES
dc.title	On the politics and the possibilities of participatory mapping and GIS : using spatial technologies to study common property and land use change among pastoralists in Central Tibet	es_ES