On the Possibility of Democracy in a Geocoded World

Abstract

Political redistricting has increasingly been carried out with the aid of geographic information systems (GIS). Concerns about the systems have focused on their misuse, but their critics have failed to see that they raise deeper issues. First, they conceptualize districts as containers in space, where in fact people typically see themselves as belonging in and attached to their neighborhoods. Second, GIS-based geodemographic systems, based on inferred data about individuals and groups, appeal to an inadequate means of theorizing about community and culture. Finally, the availability of these data is increasingly leading to a society in which views are imputed to people who may not believe them, while politicians act as though people have those views, without having good reason to believe that people actually hold them. Together, GIS has been associated with a recasting of the public and the private in ways that render the political much less viable.