Refining a Conceptual Basemap: Critical GIS and Political Theory

Abstract

Recently, some geographers have turned their attention to some of the undertheorized concepts within critical GIS literature, resulting in the improved understanding of concepts including empowerment, participation, criticism, and the public. Nevertheless, many holes remain, with potential impacts on the future of how geographers critically examine geospatial technologies. This thesis fills one such hole, by critically analyzing the deficiencies in how geographers have conceptualized empowerment and then replacing that conceptualization with a better understanding of power itself. As a result this work provides the first detailed examination of how geographers have used the concept of power in their description of geospatial technologies and practices. In doing so this thesis refines important guiding questions for future research on emerging geospatial technologies.