Formalization Matters: Critical GIS and Ontology Research

Abstract There have been several obstacles to an embrace of critical theoretical work in GIScience; chief among them is the barrier between conceptualization and formalization. Early critics of the technology were not cognizant that technological change must be implemented within the language of code. While critics expressed their concerns in a theoretical and esoteric language, increasingly GIScientists are at pains to address the same issues so that solutions can be incorporated into software technologies. Indeed an implicit recognition of the important divide between informal and formal environments has aided GIScience researchers in developing strategies to represent multiple epistemologies in GIS. The article begins with a review of early critical GIScience, examines the degree of its acceptance in the light of a content analysis of GIS journals, and then illustrates that the issue of multiple representation of the same reality is being addressed under the rubric of ontologies. New research in this area has had significant impact on GIScience because it has been articulated and addressed at both the conceptual and formal stages—a criterion for real changes to both GISystems and GIScience. The article concludes with an examination of why critical GIS remains relevant to the discipline, in spite of efforts to address issues of representation within GIScience.