Kitchin, Rob, Dodge, Martin and Perkins, Chris (2011) Power and Politics of Mapping. In: The Map Reader: Theories of Mapping Practice and Cartographic Representation. Wiley, Chichester, pp. 387-394. ISBN 9780470742839
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Abstract
There is a long tradition of historical analysis that examines
the production of maps, their development over time and
their role in society. Such analysis implicitly concerns the
power of mapping to influence social and economic relations
in particular places and times. More recently, research
has focused specifically on the politics and power of
mapping; how power is captured in and communicated
through maps to assert command and control of territory
and socio-spatial relations; how power is bound up in the
very creation and use of maps; and how mapping practices
are used to resist and contest the exercise of power over
space. Much of this research is framed within what has been
termed critical cartography (Harley 1989; Crampton and
Krygier 2005) and critical GIS (Pickles 1995; Curry 1998;
Schuurman 1999; O’Sullivan 2006). Critical cartography is
post-positivist in its approach, drawing on a range of social
theory to re-examine cartographic representations and the
wider milieu of mapping processes. It is often avowedly
political in its analysis of mapping praxis, seeking to
deconstruct the work of maps and the science that produces
them, often undertaking to produce alternative maps
that are sensitive to the power relations at play. On the one
hand, this has led to an examination of the power of maps
and the work they do in the world, and on the other to new
forms of collaborative and counter-mapping that seek to
produce empowering and emancipatory cartographies,
which subvert the status quo. In both cases, there is an
explicit recognition that maps are a product of power at work and that they are powerful tools in struggles of
domination and resistance. In this section excerpts from
a number of key readings that seek to document and
theorize the power of maps are provided.
Item Type: | Book Section |
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Keywords: | colonial power; cartography; mapping; politics; power; |
Academic Unit: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Geography Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Institutes > National Institute for Regional and Spatial analysis, NIRSA |
Item ID: | 7310 |
Identification Number: | 10.1002/9780470979587 |
Depositing User: | Prof. Rob Kitchin |
Date Deposited: | 06 Sep 2016 14:18 |
Journal or Publication Title: | The Map Reader: Theories of Mapping Practice and Cartographic Representation |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Refereed: | No |
Related URLs: | |
URI: | https://mu.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/7310 |
Use Licence: | This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here |
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