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Call for chapters in a new book entitled “ Marketing Geography without GIS. Challenges and opportunities.”

By Camelia Kantor posted 09-22-2013 11:41

  
There is a lot of discussion going on in the academic field about the need for GIS as a major requirement for today’s and future geographers. Even though considered today as simply a tool that can be leant and used by experts in disciplines other than Geography, it has become over time a sine qua non for Geographers when entering the job market. Geography is often marketed by colleges and universities in conjunction with GIS, many stand-alone Geographers gaining some interest from their employers by mainly advertising their GIS skills. Many agree that Geography as a discipline owes much of its revitalization in the US to GIS capabilities. Successfully, in the past years traditional geographic skills combined with GIS software allowed for higher level of diversification and new perspectives. But an altocumulus is approaching and a storm is likely in the Geography field: with an increase in GIS certification opportunities more and more professionals from other fields are learning and utilizing GIS without help from Geographers. Also, finding a job in the GIS industry is not reliant on having a Geography degree. It helps, but computer programming skills and practice prevail when applying for jobs. And when considering that most advertised jobs involve some level of GIS knowledge, how are Geographers going to compete and prevail? What is going to happen to Geography when GIS will no longer be its trademark? Are we going to witness again its disappearance from academia? How can we use GIS to enhance our discipline instead of replacing it? What happens to those Geographers who don’t know GIS? Is marketing Geography as GIS a correct approach and if not, what can we do to “sell” our discipline as more than just a temporary host? 
If you have answers to some of these questions and other related questions related to the topic mentioned above I would love to hear from you. Please consider submitting book chapters written in the form of essays. The essays should be between 1,500 to 2,500 words, typed in Word. Please use 12 point Times New Roman font, double spaced. When you submit please also attach a single-paragraph bio (up to 80 words). You are welcome to include your website link. We would like to hear pro and cons from Geographers, GIS experts, as well as from others without Geography formal educational background who use GIS as part of their jobs. We would love you to share your own real experiences and lessons you learnt that might help enhance the discipline of Geography and support those interested in Geography careers. 

Deadline: Submissions will be accepted through February 1st, 2014 at midnight EST via my Versita e-mail at cmkantor@versita.com . Please submit only original work. By submitting your entry for consideration, you acknowledge that you are the full copyright owner of your work and you have the right to submit your essay for this project. All essay writers will be notified in May 2014 to let you know whether or not your essay was selected for publication. 

Who am I?
I am the Associate Editor for Geography at Versita (www.versita.com), part of De Gruyter (www.degruyter.com), an established scholarly publisher with more than 260 years of distinguished history. I am also a tenure track assistant professor at Claflin University in South Carolina (US) involved with Geography curricula development at my institution. 
As previously advertised by our Managing Editor, Lucrezia Lopez, Versita is currently in the process of launching an Open Access Books program and I thought perhaps you or your colleagues might be interested in submitting a manuscript for our consideration. 
For more information on our Open Access book program in Geography please visithttp://www.versita.com/Book_Author/Geography/
Find us on facebook: www.facebook.com/Versita.Open.Access.Books
Read our blog: www.openscience.com
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Cheers,
Camelia Kantor, PhD, MBA 
Associate Editor, Geography
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