S. Elwood

Sarah Elwood
Associate Professor
Department of Geography
University of Washington
206.616.5238, selwood@u.washington.edu
Smith 413B

Courses
Geography 360/560: Principles of GIS Mapping
Geography 461/561: Urban GIS
Geography 469: GIS Workshop

Geography 521: Research Seminar: Critical GIS

I am interested in understanding the social and political impacts of spatial technologies such as GIS, and the changing role and power of community-based planning and local activism in shaping urban geographies. My research and teaching practices incorporate mixed methods, participatory research methods and experiential learning. I am currently finishing a research, teaching, and community outreach project that focuses on the use and impacts of geographic information systems and GIS-based spatial knowledge in neighborhood revitalization, and urban planning and problem solving. In collaboration with two community development organizations in Chicago, the project seeks to understand the changing activities of grassroots citizen organizations in urban governance processes that shape neighborhood needs and conditions, by showing how their role and power in this context is affected by use of computer mapping and analysis technologies such as GIS. As part of experiential learning activities in my GIS and urban geography courses, undergraduate students work with these organizations to plan and implement GIS-based spatial analysis projects using these data. These activities are intended to develop students’ skills for and commitments to public service and active citizenship, and their critical reflection upon the social and political implications of their conceptual and applied learning. In its broader societal contributions, we hope the project will develop knowledge and practices that help answer fundamental questions about how to improve quality of life in American inner city neighborhoods, and encourage robust democratic practices that involve neighborhood residents in the very decisions that affect them and their neighborhoods. This project is supported by the National Science Foundation.

Selected Publications (full cv)

Elwood, S. 2009. Geographic Information Science: New geovisualization technologies – emerging questions and linkages with GIScience research. Progress in Human Geography 33(2): 256-263.
Elwood, S. 2009. Integrating action research and GIS education: Negotiating methodologies, politics, and technologies. The Journal of Geography in Higher Education 33(1): 51-65.
Kindon, S. and Elwood, S. 2009. Introduction: More than methods - Reflections on participatory action research in geographic teaching, learning and research. The Journal of Geography in Higher Education 33(1): 19-32.
Elwood, S. 2008. Volunteered Geographic Information: Future Research Directions Motivated by Critical, Participatory, and Feminist GIS. GeoJournal 72(3 & 4): 173-183.
Elwood, S. 2008. Grassroots groups as stakeholders in spatial data infrastructures: Challenges and opportunities for local data development and sharing. International Journal of Geographic Information Science 22(1): 71-90.
Elwood, S. 2007. Negotiating participatory ethics in the midst of institutional ethics. ACME 6(2): 1-10.
Elwood, S. 2006. Critical issues in participatory GIS: Deconstructions, reconstructions, and new research directions. Transactions in GIS 10(5): 693-708.
Elwood, S. 2006. Beyond cooptation or resistance: Urban spatial politics, community organizations, and GIS-based spatial narratives. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 96(2): 323-341.
Elwood, S. 2006. Negotiating knowledge production: The everyday inclusions, exclusions, and contradictions of participatory GIS research. The Professional Geographer 58(2): 197-208.
Elwood, S. 2004. Partnerships and participation: reconfiguring urban governance in different state contexts. Urban Geography 25(8): 755-770.
Elwood S. and Ghose R. 2004. PPGIS in community development planning: framing the organizational context. Cartographica 38(3/4): 19-33.
Elwood S. 2004. Neighborhood revitalization through 'collaboration': assessing the implications of neoliberal urban policy at the grassroots. GeoJournal 58(2/3): 121-130.
Elwood, S. 2004. Experiential learning, spatial practice and critical urban geographies. Journal of Geography 103(2): 55-63.