Critical theory in arts and humanities research places increasing emphasis on the impact of time and space as elements in the process of social and cultural reproduction. From Foucault's panopticon, Tilley's phenomenology and Schama's landscapes, a significant unifying thread has emerged across disparate disciplines, calling for researchers to explore more explicitly the role of "place" within the construction of social and cultural identities. Conventional views of space as a neutral container for action have been supplanted by more sophisticated, and more complicated, views which vest place with a peculiar form of agency. Along side this conceptual shift, computing infrastructures have emerged that purport to model spatial interactions through time - in the form of geographic information systems. This session will explore a perceived gap that exists between the concept of place within cultural studies, and the way that place is represented by information technologies. Three particular inter-related directions for GIS in the arts and humanities will be highlighted, and which will provide scope for a widerdiscussion: GIS in socio-economic studies; GIS in heritage management; and GIS in cultural landscapes.