Picturing planning perspectives. Understanding implementation of geographical information systems for land use planning and regulation in the Costa Rican State

GIS projects for Third World governments were expected to lead to better land use policies. Instead computers have not been used, and GIS projects were often referred to as normal'>new white elephants . This book investigates problems of GIS implementation in three Costa Rican ministries. It reveals that embedding technology is part of complex institutional processes where actors and politics shape contexts.By linking an historical analysis of land use planning with case studies, the book demonstrates that GIS implementation was strategically used for new coordinating roles that were ascribed to the Costa Rican State. In this way GIS implementation problems had more to do with the slow process of state reform than with information production and mapmaking.The author explores the idea of 'techno-structuration' explaining that problems of GIS transfer are as much about human agents and organisations as they are about technological issues. GIS implementation projects must therefore take the historical, institutional and political aspects of its application field into account when designing information production and its use. Picturing Planning Perspectives will be of interest to scholars in the field of geography and planning as well as to policy makers and development experts involved in GIS projects, state reform and governance.