Full Circle: More than Just Social Implications of GIS

Abstract

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.