Ontology

Spatial ontologies are formal arrangements of geographic features based on the meaning of their terms and relation to each other. Taken from the field of philosophy concerned with ontology, or the study of what is real in the world, the role of [Page 2082]ontology in geography is to formalize knowledge bases (logical structures of geographical knowledge) and to recognize, exchange, and support common geography cultures through the use of the semantics, or meanings, that groups of people assign to geographic features and spatial relations. Within the established scope of the ontology, the features imply definitions and descriptive qualities. Relations among features have a range of meanings or specific values. Although the articulation of an ontology is a largely abstract endeavor, its elements are derived from empirical investigations. Ontologies are intended to refer to the real world.

Geographers turn to the underlying ontology of a study, as it is expressed, to examine the implications of the terms and semantics of the subject. Ontologies are discussed in the geographical literature as foundations of studies and, as such, are subject to analysis to understand the limitations and motivations of those studies within their scope. Although ontology implies the acceptance of a realist philosophy, its abstractions leave the scope of the ontology open to interpretation. Concepts of ontology often appear as the transition between epistemology and methods—a key concept in geographic thought, philosophy, and theory, with implications in specific subfields of geographic practices. Geography methods aim to capture the nature (the ontology) of their subjects, while recognizing that knowledge is affected by social (epistemological) implications.

Ontology in geography has been linked to a broader recognition of diversity, in the hope of making those differences explicit and thereby enriching the knowledge base of geographic activity. This task has been accomplished by turning to the immediate realism of interconnected themes of place, environment, society, and philosophy. Ontology is used in analyses of key concepts of geography, such as networks and globalization; urbanism and agrarianism; history, economics, and culture; and nature and the environment. Social developments such as feminism and postcolonialism have been furthered by discussions of their ontology.

Ontology can be structured by geographical concepts such as scale and generalization. Geographical features are often viewed as embedded in hierarchies of scales and taxonomies of classes. Though the formations of these classes have been studied in relation to psycho-cognitive experiences, some categorization concepts bias views of the world by “covering up” factors and agents—for example, ideas of globalization. In contrast to hierarchies of geographical extents, flat ontology explores concepts of sites as context to geographic features and relations. These sites have both stable, structuring forces and potentials for new opportunities of expression. Through processes or the activation of relations, the mutable spaces and composition of sites emerge as new potential environments. Thus, ontology can be regarded as transformative. Concurrently, however, a central concern of history and historiography in geography is fundamentally ontological: How do we conceptualize and accept what was real about the past?

Ontology appeared prominently as a core concept in geography as Marxism critiqued Aristotelian ontology; briefly stated, this argument is that no objects are just simply “out there” in the world. Instead, elements, things, structures, and systems exist within the processes, flows, and relations that create, sustain, or undermine them. To define things relationally is different from direct observation that posits features as being self-evident rather than as a product determined by history and politics. The postmodern recognition of the importance of geography led to a new interest in the ontology of geography. Embracing spatiality, temporality, and social being as a part of the material world, ontology and postmodern geography recognize social constructs as shaping and simultaneously being shaped by the empirical world.

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