Introduction: Critical GIS

Does critical theory have a place in GIS? While the answer today is "yes," and some stable ground around its understanding has been created, "critical GIS" remains an oxymoron for many GIS users and critical social theorists. Since 1968, the year in which Roger Tomlinson for the first time referred to GIS in designating the Ganadian Geographic Information System, GIS has become a multibillion-doUar industry, a key part of military operations, an aid to environmental protection and nature conservation, a key element of government and private management and surveillance, and an invigorating basis for new types of academic research and community activism. These and other developments in GIS technology have been praised by some and discredited by others. Gertainly GIS has grown to become one of current society's most common yet, in many ways, most misunderstood technologies. This special issue presents a collection of articles related to the field of critical GIS and marks a passing point in the development of such scholarship. So, what is "critical GIS," and how do the authors in this special issue employ its insights to analyse geospatial technologies?