National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis

This three-day specialist meeting in Santa Barbara, CA (8-10 Oct. 1998) convened 25 participants to explore the nature of identity in an era of vastly increased movement of people, goods, and information, yet also an era in which information and geographic-information technologies portend an equally increased ability to trace and record those movements, not just at border crossings but virtually everywhere. Will the ease of movement of ideas spell the end of spatially bounded communities? Will the threat of surveillance give new life to the most insular, place- and non-place bound communities? Or will, perhaps, the “fragmented identities” celebrated by postmodernists become the norm? This report addresses these interrelated questions and provides summary abstracts from participants and a synthesis of meeting discussions and recommendations.