121-227 Spatial Informatics

Completion of 25 points of first-year geography or approval of the subject coordinator.

The focus will be on the effects of technologies like mobile telephones, the Internet, global position finders, geographic information systems, teleconferencing, SMS messages and electronic mail. They all have potential to impact greatly on the way people conduct their lives in terms of activities and personal relationships. Particular emphasis will be placed on the role played by space in any transformation of human behaviour, along with the spatial outcomes of technological change. Phenomena examined will include people's dynamic mental maps, neuroscience-based spatial perception, access to geographical data, intelligent transport systems and spatial information technology's relationship to disaster preparedness, sustainable development, freedom of assembly and the nature of work.

A two-hour examination and written work totalling not more than 2000 words

To be advised during semester, but likely to include references such as:

• Jan van Dijk, The network society: social aspects of new media. Sage 1999.
• M I Wilson & K E Corey (eds), Information tectonics: space, place and technology in an electronic age. Chichester, Wiley 2000.
• M Castells, The rise of the network society. Blackwell 2000.