This guide enables students of human geography to take a critical look at the set of practices, hardware and software that are together described as GIS.

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• A guide to GIS for students of human geography.
  
• Outlines the distinct approaches to inquiry employed in GIS and illustrates their relevance for human geographers.
  
• Traces the history of GIS and human geography from 1970 to the present.
  
• Illustrates the challenges of data collection, classification in the context of multiple stakeholders and epistemological approaches.
  
• Tracks the use of GIS in applied contexts through the stages of problem definition, data acquisition and classification, choice of software, spatial analysis and graphic output.
  
• Includes an inventory of tools and information related to GIS, including web-based resources.
  
• Supported by a website, www.blackwellpublishing.com/schuurman.

Nadine Schuurman is Assistant Professor of Geography at Simon Fraser University. She did her Ph.D. at the University of British Columbia and integrates science and technology studies in solving technical problems in GIS. She has published in both human geography journals such as PIHG, Society and Space, and Gender, Place and Culture as well as GIS journals including Cartographica and Cartography and GIS.