Multi-cultural Aspects of Spatial Knowledge Andrew U. Frank Geoinformation TU Vienna frank@geoinfo.tuwien.ac.at www.geoinfo.tuwien.ac.at Andrew Frank 1
Overview 1. What is culture? 2. Cultural influences in GIS review of previous research 3. Culture as a particular aspect of context Andrew Frank 2
Goal of talk: Cultural differences are obvious: Language Social structure Customs How do they influence GIScience and GIS? Practical question: can one GIS software serve the world? Contribute to a better understanding and a differentiation of cultural and context.
Difficult topic: multiple meaning of culture High cultures, e.g. Maya Popular culture Art and literature
Tulum
Coba
The landscape
Chichen Itza
Ball game
Palenque
San Cristobal de las Casas
Written culture
Culture alive
Potential influence of cultural differences: Cultural assumptions built into GIS software: 1. Spatial cognition 2. Verbal expression of spatial relation 3. Naming of GIS operations 4. Different physical situation 5. Identification of landmarks 6. Toponyms
Cultural differences in spatial cognition (Montello): Spatial cognition is universal, i.e. the same for all human beings. No evidence to the contrary has been found, despite efforts. However, people over- or underestimate distance depending on situation. No influence of regular environment on spatial conceptualization found (Freundschuh)
Naming of geometric situation (Egenhofer, Mark): Human subject testing for a sketched situation of a road and a park. Comparing different language groups does not show significant differences.
Regular failures in spatial reasoning Hierarchical grouping let people overestimate distances between groups compared to inter-group distances. Observed, at least, in as diverse groups as American and Chinese.
Naming of GIS operations may be confusing: The names given to GIS operations are typically metaphorical applications of everyday words. Implications in the source language may conflict with implications in the target language and thus confuse GIS users.
A detailed case study: English term: cover, coverage Italian translation: copertura The Italian connotations imply hiding what is underneath, thus not suggesting the idea of connecting the coverages. Did not become a major obstacle as GIS experts are specially trained and lay people use prepared applications.
GIS were constructed initially with a specific application in mind: The application worked on initially at the Harvard Graphics Lab were planning for new suburban developments in the mid-west of the USA. It focuses on a 2D projection of the city, with uniform (nearly isotropic) terrain, and exclusive assignments of land use.
How to use it for re-planning cities like this?
Automatic Identification of Landmarks Landmarks are crucial for proper wayfinding instructions. Research to identify landmarks automatically is important. Can it result in universally usable software?
Toponyms and descriptions of land forms Terms like Lake, Pond etc. appear often in toponyms and are important for querying GIS. How to translate? Lake ~ lac ~ laguna? Pond etang ~ laguna?
Simple translation does not work (Mark):
Stages of past research: Naive
Whorfian
Summary of past research No fundamental differences in spatial cognition identified. Yet another example of the Whorfian hypothesis failing.
Strong dependencies on cultural aspects in the context of GIS use: Language not likely automatically translatable without consideration of context. Toponyms and land form terms: dependent on natural and cultural context.
A suggestion for a systematic approach Consider the semantic triangle, from the object perceived to the materialized expression:
Context redefined: Define context such that it influences all the mappings that occur from object perceived to the expression.
Structure the mappings in a sequence (hypothesis): human body physical environment Subject physical situation social environment concepts communication goals Language expression
Hypothesis of mappings: A collection of data or the formulation of a query in a GIS are expressions
Human body The properties of the human body influence what is perceived: The human senses Humans perceive only a specific window from the spatial and temporal spectrum.
Physical environment The presence of stimuli as produced by: climate, habitat, technology, economy, etc. determine what we see as objects and the operations possible with them.
The subject's situation: What are the current goals? What actions contribute to achieve them? Which objects permit these actions?
The social interpretation of the situation: X counts as Y in context Z (Searle). What is the social context which gives sense to the objects? What are the socially constructed operations that help me achieve my goals?
Communication goals What is the message I want to communicate? Factual information + Emotional stanza
Expression in a language Language as a system of symbols and their combination. Social agreements on what they communicate.
Culture influences some mappings: Depending on the definition of culture: Environment Technology Cosmology Political system Language These are interdependent...
Conclusion Culture and cultural influences is not well defined. Replace with a sequence of mappings from real world to concepts to expressions (symbols). To communicate subject situation the context determining the mapping must be fixed this is (mostly) culture.