Full Circle: More than Just Social Implications of GIS

Over the past few years, a number of geographers, inspired by social theory of various derivations, attempted to recenter the focus of research about GIS. In place of a technical agenda, they sought to make space for studies of the implications of GIS for society at many scales and through many processes. While much of their critique serves useful purposes, the focus on implications adopts a model of GIS as an inexorable implacable force. This paper argues for a full circle of implication: GIS– the daily practice, the data stored, the software packages – is constructed and maintained by social processes embedded in historical and geographically contingent settings. Only by understanding the full circle of implications can we begin to think about making any attempt to understand or to redirect the direction of GIS development. This paper demonstrates the value of a full circle by reexamining the arguments made in the book