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Abstract
This article was motivated by a senior biologist calling a junior GIScientist's bluff, when she attempted to wave the flag for GISc (Geographic Information Science). Whether GISc is a science is a long-standing debate, and one that continuously resurfaces within the literature and within the everyday lives of a GIScientist; not least those that have senior biologists poking fun at their discipline. It is ever pertinent in the face of changing disciplinary boundaries, be they mergers of departments or shifts from departments to research groups and of changes in research funding regimes. Despite a number of previous articles, there is scope for further discussion, bringing that argument closer to a much larger and longer standing debate in science, that of the demarcation problem. The purpose of this article is to revisit the question of whether GISc is a science, applying the ideas formulated within the philosophy of science on the demarcation problem. The conclusion drawn is that GISc can indeed be considered a science.
Acknowledgements
I thank Henry Connor, from the Department of Geography at The University of Canterbury, without whose prodding this article would not have been published. My thanks also go to the reviewers of this article, who provided valuable and stimulating feedback.
Notes
1 The following figures are forecasted for the fiscal year ending 30 June 2011; the Ministry for Research Science and Technology is allotted $768 million, and for Arts, Culture and Heritage, $295 million. The raw data are available online from http://www.treasury.govt.nz/budget/2010/data
2 The figures are available from http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/media/news/2010news/Pages/101220.aspx