Full Circle

More than Just Social Implications of GIS

Bibliographic Data

ID14701134
AuthorsNicholas Chrisman (0000-0002-6542-7561, Université Laval, corresponding author)
Year2005
Volume40
Issue4
Pages23-35
Publication date2005-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCartographica The International Journal for Geographic Information and Geovisualization (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0317-7173 • E-ISSN: 1911-9925
PublisherUniversity of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.3138/8u64-k7m1-5xw3-2677
OpenAlexW2000122850
LanguageEN
Citations received35
References cited63

The emergence of geographic information systems (GIS) has raised a useful debate in the discipline of geography over the connection between technology and society. Proponents of GIS have argued from the beginning that their work had a value that warranted adoption; hence, that technology brought something to society. A wave of criticism argued that there were implications and risks to society in adopting these technologies. While this debate served some useful purposes, it was only a start on the issue. The focus on implications risked the simplification of seeing GIS as an inexorable, implacable force, a form of “technological determinism.” This paper argues for a full circle of implication: GIS – the daily practice, the data stored, the software – is constructed and maintained by social processes embedded in historical and geographically contingent settings. The full circle requires an openness to studies of the influence from the social realm to the technology. By tracing the full circle, too, we can better appreciate the implications to society

Cartography · Criticism · Determinism · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Geographic information system · Geography · Information technology · Openness to experience · Political science · Public relations · Realm · Social science · Sociology · Value (mathematics · Computer Science · Geographic Information Systems Studies · Human Mobility and Location-Based Analysis · Land Use and Ecosystem Services · Law