The Politics of Mapping

Description

Maps and mapping are fundamentally political. Whether they are authoritarian, hegemonic, participatory or critical, they are most often guided by the desire to have control over space, and always involve power relations. This book takes stock of the knowledge acquired and the debates conducted in the field of critical cartography over some thirty years. The Politics of Mapping includes analyses of recent semiological, social and technological innovations in the production and use of maps and, more generally, geographical information. The chapters are the work of specialists in the field, in the form of a thematic analysis, a theoretical essay, or a reflection on a professional, scientific or militant practice. From mapping issues for modern states to the digital and big data era, from maps produced by Indigenous peoples or migrant–advocacy organizations in Europe, the perspectives are both historical and contemporary. Cover Half-Title Page Title Page Copyright Page Contents Introduction Chapter 1. The Map as a Legitimate Space: Cartography as a Language, a Stage and an Issue 1.1. Introduction 1.2. Map truth regimes 1.3. The new spaces of the electoral map 1.4. Cartographic turn, geographic turn and political space 1.5. Ethical turn and mapping 1.6. Mapping, citizen science 1.7. References Chapter 2. Cartography and Spatial Production of Society 2.1. The map, politics and morality 2.2. The map, territory and globe 2.3. The map, order and modernity 2.4. The map, reason and rhetoric 2.5. The map, constraint and the self-organization 2.6. The map, production and society 2.7. References Chapter 3. Farewell to Maps: Reformulating Critical Cartography in the Digital Age 3.1. Introduction 3.2. Farewell to maps: when the digital world disrupts the objects and questions of a research current 3.2.1. The main issues of conventional critical mapping 3.2.2. What the digital world does to critical mapping: Russian doll-like difficulties 3.2.3. Methods maladapted to digital technology changes 3.3. The shortcomings of critical mapping exacerbated by digital technology 3.3.1. The “Harlesian” of reflections on the finished product 3.3.2. The taste for successful maps 3.3.3. A taste for great narratives 3.4. Reformulating critical mapping in the digital age 3.4.1. Three priority disciplinary alliances 3.4.2. Making political sense of what does not work: investigating “maps for nothing” in the digital age 3.4.3. The political meaning of cartographic modesty: what do the “small maps of the Web” tell us? 3.4.4. Circulation and policy 3.5. Conclusion 3.6. References Chapter 4. Mapping and Participation in the topos and chora Test 4.1. Introduction 4.2. Participatory mapping tested by topos and chora 4.3. Toward a reflective approach to participatory mapping 4.4. From solicited mapping to collaborative systems and digital traces 4.5. The new boundaries of collaborative mapping systems produced by geolocation technologies 4.6. Representing the spatiotemporal dimension of urban mobility using data produced by inhabitants 4.7. Toward a reflective and chorographic approach to collaborative mapping systems 4.7.1. Solicited mapping systems with active participation 4.7.2. Voluntary and participatory mapping systems 4.7.3. Derivative and passive participatory map systems 4.8. Conclusion 4.9. References Chapter 5. The Cartographic Factory of Modern States 5.1. Introduction 5.2. The invention of spatial modernity in the Renaissance 5.3. State imaginaries of space and territory 5.4. The construction of the nation-state through the map 5.5. The colonial adventure: a counter-illustration? 5.6. Maps and the government of things and people 5.7. Current state of the issue 5.8. References Chapter 6. Statistical Cartography and International Governance in the Age of Big Data 6.1. Introduction 6.2. Birth and internationalization of statistical cartography 6.3. International statistical mapping 6.3.1. Statistics and mapping by international organizations 6.3.2. Coordination of statistical and geographical information 6.3.3. Is the aggregation of national data outdated? 6.4. Cartography in the digital age 6.4.1. Computerization and dissemination of cartographic resources 6.4.2. A global information space based on the Web and Big Data 6.5. Mapping the SDGs 6.5.1. A set of non-binding targets for 2030 6.5.2. Governance of the SDG indicators 6.5.3. Information coverage of the SDGs 6.5.4. Cartographic visualizations of the SDGs 6.5.5. The SDG indicator process challenged by Big Data 6.6. (Re)configurations of international cartography 6.6.1. From the visual paradigm to the datamatic paradigm 6.6.2. Informational alignments 6.6.3. Political alignments 6.7. Conclusion 6.8. References Chapter 7. Indigenous Mapping: Reclaiming Territories, Decolonizing Knowledge 7.1. Introduction 7.2. Conceptual and theoretical milestones 7.2.1. Indigenous counter-mapping: a struggle for concrete and symbolic spaces 7.2.2. Indigenous mapping as a field of academic thinking 7.3. Using maps to claim rights and reclaim territories 7.3.1. Brief history of the political use of maps 7.3.2. Indigenous mapping in the Americas: similarities and differences between North and South 7.3.3. The aporias of the “cartographic-legal strategy” 7.3.4. Controlling the flow of geographic information 7.3.5. The ambiguous role of the digital giants 7.4. Decolonizing maps and cartography 7.4.1. Toward an inclusive definition of maps 7.4.2. “Reconstructing” maps 7.4.3. Representing “Indigenous depth of place” 7.5. Conclusion 7.6. References Chapter 8. Chorematic Representations in Participatory Processes of Territorial Projects 8.1. Introduction 8.2. Methodological choices 8.3. Three illustrations of the use of choremes in territorial projects 8.3.1. The Pikogan forest in Quebec or choremes for communicating 8.3.2. The Western Pacific Islands or the choremes for integrating the issues 8.3.3. The gardens of the Billom area in France or the choremes for acting 8.4. How can we evaluate this co-construction of territories? 8.5. References Chapter 9. National Territorial Prospective Maps 9.1. Introduction 9.2. DATAR, foresight and mapping 9.3. The Paris Basin White Paper 9.3.1. Cartographic design 9.3.2. The graphic vocabulary 9.3.3. Translating, visualizing and expressing intentions 9.4. The first maps of the great national debate on regional planning 9.5. France in 2015 9.6. France in 2020 9.6.1. Three “deterrent” scenarios 9.6.2. The “connected polycentrism” scenario 9.7. Lessons from a wealth of experience 9.8. References Chapter 10. Making Maps to Fight Unjust Migration Policies 10.1. Introduction 10.2. Actors and objectives of cartographic productions 10.2.1. From respect to emancipation of semiological conventions 10.2.2. The two network compasses 10.3. Mapping experiments undertaken 10.3.1. Carrying knowledge and claims 10.3.2. New modes of representation 10.3.3. The words on the maps are also important 10.3.4. The issue of esthetics 10.4. Conclusion 10.5. References List of Authors Index