Studying the use of geo-information in government – A conceptual framework

The aim of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework for studying the use of geo-information and associated technology in government. We first review how geo-information, geo-information technology and people—notions central to geo-information use—are conceptualized in the literature and show that authors view these notions through two contrasting lenses, a market and a polis lens. We then present a people-centered conceptual framework for the study of geo-information use in government. The framework encompasses people’s values, people’s practices and the rules that people are expected to follow to optimize the use of geo-information. We show how the market and polis lenses illuminate the study of values, practices and rules in different ways resulting in radically different insights. Finally, we illustrate the usefulness of the conceptual framework with preliminary findings from a longitudinal empirical study in the Netherlands.