Notes on the Issues of “GIS and Society”: Critical GIS as an Alternative Geographic Information Science

WAKABAYASHI Yoshiki, NISHIMURA Yuichiro

doi:10.4157/grj.83.60

With the dissemination of GIS and geospatial technologies, the influence of them on not only geographical research but also society has been discussed in English-speaking countries since 1990s. Further, in Japan, as the production of geospatial data and diffusion of GIS have remarkably progressed, geospatial technologies are penetrating into business and daily life. The aim of this paper is to summarize the argument about the issues of GIS and society in English-speaking countries and consider their implications for the GIS studies in Japan.<br>To begin with, we examined the tone and background of the argument about the issues of GIS and society before 2000 mainly on the basis of the work of Schuurman who called this subject “Critical GIS” dividing the progress of the argument into three periods. As a result, it was found that the controversy between GIS scholars and social theorists in the early 1990s changed to cooperation between two groups around the mid 1990s owing to the dialog meeting held by NCGIA in the USA. This movement led to the establishment of Geographic Information Science that embraces the issues of GIS and society as a research subject.<br>Then, we traced the development of the argument since 2000, especially in North America, and found that the following themes concerning GIS and society have been discussed: the practice of PPGIS, qualitative GIS raised by feminist geographers, social construction of GIS based on the perspective of STS (Science, Technology, and Society), and ethical or legal issues of surveillance and privacy.<br>While these arguments are suggestive of GIS studies in Japan, Japanese scholars do not fully understand the point of the argument. This seems to be reflected in the partial understanding of PPGIS that has been led on the initiative of the Japanese government. Recently, however, interest in the social impact of the sophistication of geospatial technologies has grown in Japan because of the increasing popularity of LBS (Location-Based Services) provided using mobile phones and the Internet. In addition, it is expected that enactment of Japanese NSDI (National Spatial Data Infrastructure) Law in 2007 will promote the prevalence of geospatial information and related technologies. Hence, Japanese scholars are now coming to grips with the issues related to GIS and society. While tackling these issues, we ought to grasp the meaning of critical GIS accurately, considering the characteristics of the technological development and institutional/social context of GIS in Japan.

Notes on the Issues of “GIS and Society”: Critical GIS as an Alternative Geographic Information Science

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