Annals of the Association of American Geographers (2002) 92(4):
645-661.
Feminist Visualization: Re-envisioning GIS
As a Method in Feminist Geographic Research
Mei-Po Kwan
Abstract: Despite considerable
progress in recent geographic information systems (GIS) research (especially on
public participation GIS), the
critical discourse on GIS in the 1990s did not seem to have impacted upon GIS
practices in geographic research in significant ways. Development in critical
GIS practice has been quite limited to date, and GIS and critical geographies remain
two separate, if not overtly antagonistic, worlds. This suggests that critical
engagement that seeks to conceive and materialize the critical potential of GIS
for geographic research is still sorely needed. In this paper, I explore the
possibilities for this kind of critical engagement through revisiting some of the central arguments in
the critical discourse from feminist perspectives. I examine whether GIS
methods are inherently incompatible with feminist epistemologies through interrogating their
connection with positivist scientific practices and visualization technologies.
Bearing in mind the limitations of current GIS, I explore several ways in which
GIS methods may be used to enrich feminist geographic research. I propose to
re-imagine GIS as a method in feminist geography and describe feminist
visualization as a possible critical practice in feminist research. I argue
that GIS can be re-envisioned and used in feminist geography in ways that are
congenial to feminist epistemologies and politics. These alternative practices
represent a new kind of critical engagement with GIS that is grounded on the
critical agency of the GIS user/researcher.
Key Words: critical GIS, feminism, feminist geography, GIS, visualization
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