GIS and Society: Towards a Research Agenda

Recognition that GIS is a social technology implies that the GIS research agenda should be broadened to incorporate questions of the social imbeddedness and impact of GIS. Research into these questions can draw on the complementary skills of GIS specialists and social theorists. GIS as we know it is not the only form it could have taken, but has followed a direction of development shaped by technical and social conditions. GIS represents the world in certain ways that privilege instrumental logic over other ways of knowing. GIS can have significant consequences affecting the outcome of social problems which it is employed to solve, depending on differential access to GIS and information, and on what is defined as information. Such issues suggest a rich agenda for future research.

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