Filed under: centred/focused
Where does the discipline of geospatial science fit into the broader scheme of the study of science and technology? It is often described as being at the junction of geography and computer science, but what does it take from each field of endeavour? Is it primarily focussed on technology, or is it about geographical theory, or both, or something else entirely? If both, then how do we resolve the tension between the two?
A technology-focussed approach to any field of endeavour is often driven by current societal demands and is time-critical, because technology moves on rapidly. If the research idea is of commercial interest and the research process is too slow, then private commercial organisations will complete the work and overtake research organisations that have limited resources and the need to publish scholarly work.
A theoretical approach has the benefit of providing a more stable and long-term foundation for research activities, and is a better candidate for research projects with limited resources (for example, PhD projects). Not only are such efforts less prone to sudden changes in technology trends and efforts by large, well-resoured organisations, they are more suited to the exercise of classical research methods and approaches for beginning researchers, and develop a set of knowledge and skills with greater longevity. While knowledge and skills that relate to a particular technology will provide useful practical outcomes in the short term, in 5 years time, they are likely to be redundant.
Despite the many benefits of theoretical research, if it is performed for its own sake without reference to real-world requirements and current societal trends, it risks becoming inappropriate, ineffective, irrelevant or unimportant. When I was doing my PhD, I was involved in numerous discussions about how to choose a good research question. A good research question must be both orginal and worthwhile/useful to society. While no-one may ever have measured how many fleas will fit into a football field (and thus the question is original) – the answer to this question is unlikely to provide much benefit to society. However, if we use the fleas to determine how irregularly-shaped objects can be stacked, how large numbers of creatures behave when trapped in a confined space or how space can be conceptualised in non-cartesian and non-uniform ways depending on its content and format, then the research may become both original and worthwhile.
Technology is a means to an end (one of many means), theory can point the way to that end, but the end is to make a better world. This is the yardstick we must apply to all research.
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