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Within the academic and popular discussion of neogeography, it is routinely argued that the process of producing and using geographical information has been fundamentally democratised. Neogeography, in contrast to 'established geography', especially uses the argument that it is for anyone, anywhere, and anytime. Similar arguments have been used to praise the growth in Web GIS since the mid-1990s and seem to be persistent in the conceptualisation of these technologies. However, what is the nature of this democracy, and to what extent do the technologies that are used in neogeography fulfil this democratisation promise? In this contribution the framework offered by Andrew Feenberg in his critical theory of technology, and especially his call for 'deep democratisation', is used to provide a critique of these assertions of the nature of neogeography. The analysis shows that, unlike early critical GIS and the literature on participatory GIS, the analysis of neogeography adopted an instrumentalist interpretation of the technology and its applications. This view claims that technology is value free and that there is a separation between means and ends. This type of argument ignores and disguises the values that are integrated inexorably in advanced technologies. Once the values are exposed and discussed, neogeography becomes far less exciting and transformative. It becomes clear that there is a separation between a technological elite and a wider group of uninformed, labouring participants who are not empowered through the use of the technology. There are also multiple obstacles that limit the democratic potential of neogeography. The analysis progresses by considering the hierarchy of hacking, understood here as the ability to alter and change the meaning and use of a specific technological system. This hierarchy further explains the democratisation potentialities and limits of neogeography. Because of the reduced barriers, neogeography does offer some increased level of democratisation but, to fulfil this potential, it requires careful implementation that takes into account social and political aspects.

In the last decade, Public Access to Environmental Information became an important issue in environmental politics. While the legislative framework has made advances, from the declarative statements of Agenda 21 to the promulgation of the Aarhus convention on 'Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters', there seem to be lack of research on the conceptual and technical aspects of this information provision. In this paper, Soft System Methodology (SSM) is used to develop some conceptual models of public access to environmental information. These models capture the main elements that influence public access and use, and aimed at providing the basis for future developments of environmental information systems that will improve public access to, and use of environmental information. The paper provides an introduction to SSM and exemplifies how this methodology can be deployed within the context of environmental information systems.

The paper draws on an empirical study of two workshops in which the issues that arise from the use of geographic information systems (GIS) as a planning tool in public participation settings were explored by local residents who take an active interest in local planning matters in their London borough. The paper demonstrates how issues concerned with the democratization of GIS and public participation GIS (PPGIS) informed the structure and conduct of the workshops and the qualitative analysis of the workshop discussions. Key themes raised by participants included: the potential of PPGIS as a means of extending knowledge networks; issues of data ownership and the responsiveness of data providers to public concerns; and the role that institutional norms and practices play in democratizing information availability and the transparency of the decision-making process. The paper concludes that the potential of PPGIS as a planning tool cannot be separated from public concerns about the legitimacy of the planning process or local government.

Public participation requires the involvement of lay people in the decision‐making processes of issues that concern them. It is currently practiced in a variety of domains, such as transport and environmental planning. Communicating risks can be a complex task, as there may be significant differences between the risk perceptions of experts and those of lay people. Among the plethora of problems that require public involvement is the site selection of a nuclear waste disposal site in the United Kingdom, which is discussed in this article. Previous ineffective attempts to locate a site provide evidence that the problem has a strong social dimension, and studies ascribe public opposition to a loss of public trust in governmental agencies and decisionmakers, and to a lack of public understanding of nuclear waste issues. Although the mental models approach has been successfully used in the effective communication of such risks as climate change, no attempt has been made to follow a prescriptive mental model approach to develop risk communication messages that inform lay people about nuclear waste disposal. After interviewing 20 lay people and 5 experts, we construct and compare their corresponding mental models to reveal any gaps and misconceptions. The mental models approach is further applied here to identify lay people's requirements regarding what they want to know about nuclear waste, and how this information should be presented so that it is easily understood. This article further describes how the mental models approach was used in the subsequent development of an online information system for the site selection of a nuclear waste repository in the United Kingdom, which is considered essential for the improvement of public understanding and the reestablishment of trust.

General mapping, and particularly cadastral mapping, is a highly expensive activity and many governments are no longer willing to continue covering the even increasing costs of surveys. As far as Portugal is concerned – our ultimate field of interest – ongoing 2D property cadastre surveys have revealed to be rather complex, laborious and expensive given Portugal's territory tissue with a few millions of rather small real estates scattered across a rather irregular topography. Accurate collection methods of even more detailed cadastral data towards 3D cadastral systems are required. Practical acquisition of such data in the field for the purposes above constitutes the main question raised in this paper. It is believed that issues above could be tackled, at least to some extent, by considering Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI). At a time with increasing demands and when public sector resources are declining, VGI should in fact not be seen as a threat but as a potential opportunity for mapping agencies in all domains. Although a VGI approach may not be suitable yet to totally replace standard accurate methods and technologies, such as those used in full measured cadastral surveys, it is argued that VGI may well be considered as an interim step before full surveyed cadastre is eventually achieved. With this regard, a framework consisting of five validity levels of cadastral data is proposed in this paper to be tested and used in a first stage at local government level. VGI was therefore considered and taken into account in designing such framework, whose different levels of validity (in terms of precision and different sorts of accuracy) are fundamentally based on the associate source of information. For the purpose, five possible data sources have been previously identified. The goal of this paper is mainly exploratory in finding potential room in the context of 3D cadastre for VGI to be brought in and how to accomplish it. Future work will entail the identification in more detail of which sorts of cadastral data (2D, 3D or simply descriptive) may be acquired through a VGI approach. Nevertheless, preliminary considerations are drawn on some foreseen sorts of cadastral data that may potentially be acquired with a VGI approach. The design of a participatory web-based application is proposed too.

Yes ; Economic, physical, built, cultural, learning, social and service environments have a profound effect on lifelong health. However, policy thinking about health research is dominated by the 'biomedical model' which promotes medicalisation and an emphasis on diagnosis and treatment at the expense of prevention. Prevention research has tended to focus on 'downstream' interventions that rely on individual behaviour change, frequently increasing inequalities. Preventive strategies often focus on isolated leverage points and are scattered across different settings. This paper describes a major new prevention research programme that aims to create City Collaboratory testbeds to support the identification, implementation and evaluation of upstream interventions within a whole system city setting. Prevention of physical and mental ill-health will come from the cumulative effect of multiple system-wide interventions. Rather than scatter these interventions across many settings and evaluate single outcomes, we will test their collective impact across multiple outcomes with the goal of achieving a tipping point for better health. Our focus is on early life (ActEarly) in recognition of childhood and adolescence being such critical periods for influencing lifelong health and wellbeing. ; UK Prevention Research Partnership (MR/S037527/1), which is funded by the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council, Health and Social Care Research and Development Division (Welsh Government), Medical Research Council, National Institute for Health Research, Natural Environment Research Council, Public Health Agency (Northern Ireland), The Health Foundation and Wellcome.