critical GIS

GS-13 - Epistemological critiques
  • Discuss critiques of GIS as “deterministic” technology in relation to debates about the Quantitative Revolution in the discipline of geography
  • Describe the extent to which contemporary GIS&T supports diverse ways of understanding the world
  • Discuss the implications of interoperability on ontology
  • Explain the argument that GIS privileges certain views of the world over others
  • Identify alternatives to the “algorithmic way of thinking” that characterizes GIS
GS-16 - Social critiques
  • Explain the argument that, throughout history, maps have been used to depict social relations
  • Explain the argument that GIS is “socially constructed”
  • Describe the use of GIS from a political ecology point of view (e.g., consider the use of GIS for resource identification, conservation, and allocation by an NGO in Sub-Saharan Africa)
  • Defend or refute the contention that critical studies have an identifiable influence on the development of the information society in general and GIScience in particular
  • Discuss the production, maintenance, and use of geospatial data by a government agency or private firm from the perspectives of a taxpayer, a community organization, and a member of a minority group
  • Explain how a tax assessor’s office adoption of GIS&T may affect power relations within a community
GS-15 - Feminist critiques
  • Defend or refute the contention that the masculinist culture of computer work in general, and GIS work in particular, perpetuates gender inequality in GIS&T education and training and occupational segregation in the GIS&T workforce
  • Discuss the potential role of agency (individual action) in resisting dominant practices and in using GIS&T in ways that are consistent with feminist epistemologies and politics
  • Explain the argument that GIS and remote sensing foster a “disembodied” way of knowing the world
GS-14 - Ethical critiques
  • Defend or refute the argument that GIS&T professionals are culpable for applications that result in civilian casualties in warfare
  • Discuss the ethical implications of the use of GIS&T as a surveillance technology
  • Defend or refute the argument that the “digital divide” that characterizes access to GIS&T perpetuates inequities among developed and developing nations, among socio-economic groups, and between individuals, community organizations, and public agencies and private firms
GS-13 - Epistemological critiques
  • Discuss critiques of GIS as “deterministic” technology in relation to debates about the Quantitative Revolution in the discipline of geography
  • Describe the extent to which contemporary GIS&T supports diverse ways of understanding the world
  • Discuss the implications of interoperability on ontology
  • Explain the argument that GIS privileges certain views of the world over others
  • Identify alternatives to the “algorithmic way of thinking” that characterizes GIS
GS-16 - Social critiques
  • Explain the argument that, throughout history, maps have been used to depict social relations
  • Explain the argument that GIS is “socially constructed”
  • Describe the use of GIS from a political ecology point of view (e.g., consider the use of GIS for resource identification, conservation, and allocation by an NGO in Sub-Saharan Africa)
  • Defend or refute the contention that critical studies have an identifiable influence on the development of the information society in general and GIScience in particular
  • Discuss the production, maintenance, and use of geospatial data by a government agency or private firm from the perspectives of a taxpayer, a community organization, and a member of a minority group
  • Explain how a tax assessor’s office adoption of GIS&T may affect power relations within a community
GS-14 - GIS and Critical Ethics

This entry discusses and defines ethical critiques and GIS. It complements other GIS&T Body of Knowledge entries on Professional and Practical Ethics and Codes of Ethics for GIS Professionals. Critical ethics is presented as the attempt to provide a better understanding of data politics. Knowledge is never abstract or non-material. Spatial data, as a form of knowledge, may mask, conceal, disallow or disavow, even as it speaks, permits and claims. A critical ethics of GIS investigates this situated power-knowledge. Two concepts from educational pedagogy are suggested: threshold and troublesome knowledge. As we use and continue to learn GIS, these concepts may enrich our experience by usefully leading us astray. This points finally to how ethical critique is practical, empirical and political, rather than abstract or theoretical.

Pages