This final instalment of Volume 53 is a Special Issue on the past, present and future of participatory GIS and public participation GIS (collectively termed P/PGIS) and has been edited by Bandana Kar, Renee Sieber, Muki Haklay and Rina Ghose. It is published to celebrate and commemorate International Map Year (IMY), an International Cartographic Association (ICA) initiative supported by the United Nations (UN) that seeks to celebrate maps and their unique role in our world (see http://mapyear.org). Although The Cartographic Journal champions this vision within and beyond International Map Year, which runs until the end of 2016, this Special Issue provides a particularly poignant testament to the enduring relevance of cartography: the power of maps to transform lives. Maps connect people with place and politics with possession, and hence mapping carries a burden of empowerment that is amplified through wider accessibility to new technologies and the utilization of geographic data.
The editors of this Special Issue have chosen papers that successfully demonstrate the unique role and usability of maps and geographic information in our world. These address, for example, the tension between new mobile technologies and P/PGIS; attempt to reveal the connections and contradictions that crowdsourcing brings to P/PGIS; explain how ‘deep mapping’ can represent community knowledge in P/PGIS; examine how P/PGIS differs from volunteered geographic information (VGI) and citizen science; and, perhaps most crucially, explore what ‘empowerment’ means and how it is materialized through P/PGIS.
I should therefore like to thank Bandana, Renee, Muki and Rina for all their hard work and determination in bringing together an excellent and very timely Special Issue. Such was the quality of submissions that it was not possible to include all those accepted here due to the limited number of pages per Volume, therefore some of the papers associated with this Special Issue that are introduced in the editorial will be published in Volume 54. Returning to this Issue, as is usual for this time of year, it incorporates the Annual Report of the British Cartographic Society and a record of the Society’s Awards, the majority of which were presented at ‘Mapping at the Edge’, the successful joint BCS-SoC conference that was held in Cheltenham from 6 to 8 September.
As is customary for Issue 4, it is my pleasure to thank all those who have contributed to maintaining the highest standards for the Journal over this past year and particularly all those who have generously given up their time and shared their expertise to review manuscripts. Every reviewer plays a crucial role in shaping the quality of this publication and my sincere gratitude goes to each, and there are many, who have been involved. Thanks also go to Peter Vujakovic and to Ken Field for doing a sterling job as Associate Editors; to Martin Davis, Editorial Assistant, for his diligence in compiling the book and atlas reviews; and to all those on the editorial board who have helped to steer the Journal through this year of change. Last, and by no means least, my thanks go to the team at Taylor & Francis (Emily Scott, Tatiana Faia, Helen Talbot, Prempriya Mohan, Lydia Webb and Matt Cannon), whose ongoing commitment to getting the Journal back on schedule is appreciated. This is particularly important as the number of submissions continues to rise and the Journal’s impact factor is increasing. Looking ahead, Volume 54 will include papers presented at the 28th International Cartographic Conference, to be held in Washington, DC from 2 to 7 July 2017.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
Alex is Reader in Cartography and Geographic Information Science at Canterbury Christ Church University in the UK, where he lectures on map design, GIS, remote sensing, and on European and political geography. His research explores the relationship between maps and society, and in particular, the inter-cultural aspects of topographic map design and the aesthetics of cartography. Alex is also the current President of the BCS and the Chair of the ICA Commission on Topographic Mapping.