Poststructuralism and GIS: Is There a ‘Disconnect’?

Abstract

Human geography critiques of GIS are operationalized under a unique interpretation of ontology and epistemology. Internal to poststructuralism, this metaphysics collapses the traditional separation between ontology and epistemology, reducing ontological questions to epistemological constructs. Although critiques have moved beyond an initial fixation upon positivism, critical/cultural assessments of GIS tendered within the last ten years continue to motivate epistemology as a basis for its deconstruction. The epistemological reductionism of such a reading of the technology inappropriately abstracts GIS from its ontic basis in computing, giving rise to a fundamental ‘disconnect’ of poststructuralist metaphysics to the technology. This disconnect is identified in terms of (1) the epistemic fallacy, which, underwritten by (2) an ‘undoing’ of the metaphysics of presence, culminates in (3) an effective ‘deontologization’ of an immediately ontic entity. This does not negate the poststructuralist critique of GIS, but it necessitates that critical engagements of the technology accord a material ontological ground to the objects of critique.