Situated Knowledge

A growing consensus in the social sciences and humanities regards knowledge as inescapably situated within the broader spatial, temporal, sociocultural, and political economic contexts. This view has contributed to a rejection of logical positivist science as the only legitimate source of knowledge and has fostered acceptance of the idea that multiple epistemologies, or ways of knowing the world, are valid. An emergent body of research on situated knowledge explores these alternative epistemologies and their linkages with mainstream knowledge and global society. Geographers have focused on this concept in a variety of different subfields, including cultural and political ecology, geographic information systems (GIS) and society, and economic geography. Specific research foci deal with the customary knowledge systems of indigenous peoples, transformation and representation of local knowledge as a means of democratizing GIS, and spatiality of knowledge in postindustrial societies and global capitalism. Geographers and other researchers use various terms to refer to this concept, with local, indigenous, informal, expert, and traditional knowledge being most common. The variations in terminology may reflect subtle nuances in meaning, but all refer to alternative knowledge systems that arise, often experientially, as a result of differences along the lines of ethnicity, gender, class, culture, occupation, and other factors.

Ethnoecology, or ethnoscience, studies the customary knowledge of indigenous peoples and traditional rural societies and is the oldest, most well-established area of research on situated knowledge. Since its emergence from anthropology in the 1950s, ethnoecology has grown into a dynamic, interdisciplinary field in which geographers, particularly those specializing in cultural and political ecology, have made important contributions. Much of the early ethnoecological research by geographers took place in isolated settings such as tropical forests, mountain regions, and deserts and produced detailed accounts of subsistence and resource management practices from which researchers examined the ecological rationality and knowledge of local peoples. More recently, geographers have sought to contextualize their work within broader scientific debates on topics such as agroecology, sustainability, biodiversity conservation, and protected area management. Some have explored native perceptions of space, place, and the environment, demonstrating that the knowledge of the inhabitants of isolated regions around the world is often more accurate and detailed than Western science. Others have studied situated knowledge from the standpoint of power by examining the interactions between indigenous peoples and mainstream society, the state, and international organizations. A number of geographers have also used participatory methods in a variety of applied research contexts to integrate [Page 2549]the customary knowledge of local peoples with conservation, protected area management, land reform initiatives, and natural hazards mitigation.

An emergent body of literature that focuses on GIS and society, or the social implications of GIS, has also contributed to scholarly research in geography on situated knowledge. Some argue that GIS itself, and especially the human organizational frameworks in which it is embedded, is a form of situated knowledge. Participatory and public participation GIS explores how the situated knowledge of marginalized peoples can be integrated with geospatial technologies so that its original contexts and meanings are preserved and accurately represented. Much of this work examines the efforts of nonprofit organizations to use GIS as an advocacy tool for low-income residents of cities in the United States and elsewhere in the industrialized world. Rich in case studies, participatory and public participation GIS research is contributing to new methods of transforming the experiential knowledge of the urban poor to bring about progressive change in their lives. Some researchers have pursued these goals by revising the organizational model of GIS to more effectively integrate situated knowledge as data. Others have sought to develop enhanced metadata systems that provide greater flexibility of data storage and that allow multiple file formats, particularly multimedia, to be incorporated as ancillary information. Still others have used computer programming to engineer solutions that enhance the usability of GIS or to custom-design GIS applications that meet the specific needs of disadvantaged populations.

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