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Beyond GIS: Geospatial Technologies and the Future of History

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History and GIS

Abstract

GIS is a powerful technology with useful but limited application to history as practiced by most historians, appealing primarily to scholars who employ quantitative data and methods. But the spatial turn, especially as it is influenced by Web 2.0 technologies and practices, has resulted in a new hybridization of geo-spatial technologies that promise to reshape the discipline of history in ways reflective of postmodern concerns and epistemologies. In this new form, geo-spatial technologies are better equipped to construct the spatial narratives and deep maps that permit, indeed encourage, the sort of reflexive, recursive, and collaborative environments that will mark history in the future.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    A number of recent titles explore this spatial turn in the humanities, including Bodenhamer et al. (2010), Dear et al. (2011), and Daniels et al. (2011). Also see Doorn (2005).

  2. 2.

    For more on this earlier spatial turn, see Kern (1983).

  3. 3.

    See the interview with Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie in this book to learn more about the Annales.

  4. 4.

    Cresswell (2004) offers a good brief introduction to the postmodern construction of place. Also see Haulttunen (2006), Biernacki and Jordan (2002).

  5. 5.

    Michel de Certeau reminds us that “space occurs as the effect produced by the operations that orient it, situate it, temporalize it, and make it function as a polyvalent unity of conflictual programs or contractual proximities.” And stories are the constructive means we use to transform spaces into places or places into spaces. See de Certeau (1984, 117–118).

  6. 6.

    See Knowles (2008a) for a good sample of the application of GIS to various topics in the humanities. Also see the special issue of The International Journal of Humanities and Arts Computing, vol 3, no. 1–2, 2009, which is devoted to the use of GIS in a number of humanities disciplines.

  7. 7.

    See also Ayers et al.’s contribution in this book.

  8. 8.

    http://chronicle.com/blogPost/how-theory-damaged-the-humanities/6178, last accessed 27 Oct 2011.

  9. 9.

    Natalie Schuurman relates this development in Schuurman (2004, 21–52); also see Sheppard (2005).

  10. 10.

    A good brief introduction to the various forms of virtual geographic environments—3D models and 2.5D extruded surfaces, computer animations, interactive models, virtual globes, online virtual worlds, games, and semi- or fully immersive virtual reality—can be found in Priestnall et al. (2012).

  11. 11.

    http://dlib.etc.ucla.edu/projects/Forum/, last accessed on 1 Aug 2008

  12. 12.

    http://www.ted.com/talks/ben_kacyra_ancient_wonders_captured_in_3d.html, last accessed 3 Jan 2012

  13. 13.

    http://www.virtualjamestown.org, last accessed on 14 Aug 2008

  14. 14.

    Massey (2005, 9–15) and Massey (1999). A useful discussion also may be found in Peuquet (2002).

  15. 15.

    Also see Bodenhamer (2008).

  16. 16.

    For another view of how the use of Web 2.0 tools will reshape traditional notions of authority, see Johnson (2011). Also see the various essays in Scharl and Tochtermann (2007).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Polis Center, Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN, USA

    David J. Bodenhamer

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  1. David J. Bodenhamer
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Correspondence to David J. Bodenhamer .

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  1. , Department of Geography, University of Portsmouth, Lion Terrace, Buckingham Building, Portsmouth, PO1 3HE, United Kingdom

    Alexander von Lünen

  2. , Trinity College, University of Dublin, Trinity Long Room Hub, Dublin, Ireland

    Charles Travis

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Bodenhamer, D.J. (2013). Beyond GIS: Geospatial Technologies and the Future of History. In: von Lünen, A., Travis, C. (eds) History and GIS. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5009-8_1

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