5D modeling of historical experience: Geoinformatics in social sciences and humanities

On the 13th of May, Maria Zimina Oleg Kudinov and the senior lecturer of the History Department of HSE SPb and the head of the project "Applied GIS in Humanities", Ivan V. Sablin, delivered a public lecture in the lecture hall of IT-club KL10TCH.

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During the lecture was discussed how to relate check-ins in social networks with Pierre Bourdieu? What are the similarities between the car navigator and the ethnographic map of the Russian Empire? What is the difference between positivism and constructivism, and if the consensus about social reality issues is even possible to exist?

Also, they talked about geoinformatics and geographical information systems (GIS), and how GIS methodology helps to answer questions about the past and present.

During the lecture:
- Oleg Kudinov showed how to make your own GIS with the help of free software (Google Earth, Libre Office, QGIS);
- Maria Zimina told what are time and space from the positivist and constructivist point of view. She showed how cartography is associated with colonialism and biopolitics;
- Ivan Sablin demonstrated GIS modeling of social phenomena, which can construct not only in time and space terms (4D), but also in terms of the multiple interpretations of social reality (5D).

After the lecture was held the intensive Q&A section, where were posed some questions about the possibility of GIS publications in refereed journals, as well as the applicability of GIS to solve practical problems.