Critical cartography
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Critical cartography is a set of
map A map is a symbolic depiction emphasizing relationships between elements of some space, such as objects, regions, or themes. Many maps are static, fixed to paper or some other durable medium, while others are dynamic or interactive. Although ...
ping practices and methods of analysis grounded in
critical theory A critical theory is any approach to social philosophy that focuses on society and culture to reveal, critique and challenge power structures. With roots in sociology and literary criticism, it argues that social problems stem more from soci ...
, specifically the thesis that maps reflect and perpetuate relations of power, typically in favor of a society's dominant group. Critical cartographers aim to reveal the “‘hidden agendas of cartography’ as tools of socio-spatial power”. While the term "critical cartography" often refers to a body of theoretical literature, critical cartographers also call for practical applications of critical cartographic theory, such as
counter-mapping Counter-mapping is creating maps that challenge "dominant power structures, to further seemingly progressive goals". counter-mapping is used in multiple disciplines to reclaim colonized territory. Counter-maps are prolific in indigenous cultures, ...
, participatory mapping, and
neogeography Neogeography (literally "new geography") is the use of geographical techniques and tools for personal and community activities or by a non-expert group of users. Application domains of neogeography are typically not formal or analytical. From the p ...
.


History

Critical cartography originated in the 1960s through the works of Brian Harley and others, then was more formally developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Critical Cartography opposes the traditional conceptualization of mapping as an objective and neutral reflection of the environment, and instead argues that maps have historically been produced to reflect and support the interests of the ruling classes. Non-academic critical mapping organizations such as Counter-Cartographies Collective (USA), Iconoclasistas (Argentina), and Bureau d’Etudes (France) have also emerged


Critical cartographers

Since the 1991 death of
John Brian Harley (John) Brian Harley ( – ) was a geographer, cartographer, and map historian at the universities of Birmingham, Liverpool, Exeter and Wisconsin–Milwaukee. He helped found the History of Cartography Project and was the founding co-editor of th ...
, formerly a professor in Geography at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, a number of scholars have published theories and writing that identify maps as social issues and expressions of power and knowledge. Leading figures include
Denis Cosgrove Denis Edmund Cosgrove (3 May 1948, in Liverpool – 21 March 2008, in Los Angeles) was a distinguished British cultural geographer and Professor of Geography at the University of California, Los Angeles. Before this, he was Professor of Human Ge ...
,
Denis Wood Denis Wood is an artist, author, cartographer and a former professor of Design at North Carolina State University. Born in 1945, Wood grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, receiving a BA in English (in 1967) from then Western Reserve University (now Case W ...
, Jeremy Crampton, John Krygier, and Kevin St. Martin.


John Brian Harley

"Maps are never value-free images" – John Brian Harley
John Brian Harley (John) Brian Harley ( – ) was a geographer, cartographer, and map historian at the universities of Birmingham, Liverpool, Exeter and Wisconsin–Milwaukee. He helped found the History of Cartography Project and was the founding co-editor of th ...
(1932–1991) was a geographer, cartographer, and map historian. He lectured at the universities of
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
,
Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
,
Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...
, and Wisconsin Milwaukee. Some of his works include ''
Christopher Greenwood Sir Christopher John Greenwood (born 12 May 1955) is Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge and a former British judge at the International Court of Justice. Prior to his election, he was professor of international law at the London School of ...
, County Map-Maker'' (1962), ''Maps for the local historian'' (1972), ''Ordnance Survey Maps: a Descriptive Manual'' (1975), ''Concepts in the History of Cartography'' (1980), and ''The New Nature of Maps'' (2001) which was a combination of his essays and was published after his death His work for critical cartography included incorporating ideas of power, ideology, and surveillance into the understanding of mapping. He considered maps to be social documents that need to be understood in their historical contexts which include the situations in which they were made and used. 'While they can be interpreted at face value, maps also possess symbolism that can communicate political power. Harleys idea of the social construction of maps was cemented by the thoughts that maps are in fact transient rather than permanent; they have the ability to change over time in accordance with the society lived in. Cartography allows for power to be inscribed on the land. Harley discouraged people from believing maps to be “above the politics of knowledge”.


Denis Cosgrove

Denis Cosgrove Denis Edmund Cosgrove (3 May 1948, in Liverpool – 21 March 2008, in Los Angeles) was a distinguished British cultural geographer and Professor of Geography at the University of California, Los Angeles. Before this, he was Professor of Human Ge ...
(1948–2008) was a professor of geography at
UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
who was concerned with the role of spatial images and representation in the making and communicating of knowledge. He was also interested in the physical world and the limits it placed on human progress. He differentiated between dominant and alternative cultures, noting that the dominant culture's control of the cartographic representation of a given region.


Jeremy Crampton

Since 2018, Jeremy Crampton is a professor of Urban Data Analysis at the University of Newcastle School of Architecture, Planning & Landscape. He previously held professorships at the
University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a Public University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentu ...
,
University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...
, and
George Mason University George Mason University (George Mason, Mason, or GMU) is a public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia with an independent City of Fairfax, Virginia postal address in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area. The university was origin ...
. He attended the 1993 gathering at Friday Harbor and has written several literature reviews of cartography, critical GIS and social theory. He has also made several contributions to scholarship on
Michel Foucault Paul-Michel Foucault (, ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, writer, political activist, and literary critic. Foucault's theories primarily address the relationship between power and knowledge, and how ...
in Geography.


Topics and themes in critical cartography


Cartographic censorship

There are two primary types of
cartographic censorship Cartographic censorship is the deliberate modification of publicly available maps in order to disguise, remove, or obfuscate potentially strategic locations or buildings, such as military bases, power plants or transmitters. Sensitive objects and ...
. One is the censorship of information in order to serve defense interests, and the other is to enforce social and political values. Censorship in the interest of defense may include the omission or obfuscation of military bases or infrastructure, as well as locations that may be vulnerable to attack such as oil pipelines or power substations. Censorship as a way to enforce values is highlighted in the section of this page labeled “Colonialism”.


Colonialism

"Maps anticipated empire." – John Brian Harley
In his chapter ''Maps, Knowledge, Power'', Harley states that maps “were used in colonial promotion” because the maps claimed lands in the name of the settlers “before they were effectively occupied”. Many explorers of
the Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America, North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. ...
, including
Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus * lij, Cristoffa C(or)ombo * es, link=no, Cristóbal Colón * pt, Cristóvão Colombo * ca, Cristòfor (or ) * la, Christophorus Columbus. (; born between 25 August and 31 October 1451, died 20 May 1506) was a ...
, created maps of the continent that defined the political, economic, and cultural beginnings of colonial North America. These maps were inscribed locations in the Americas with Western Christian names. Critical cartographers argue that these names helped establish the territory as being compatible with Western systems of governance and therefore could be conquered and controlled. For example, English colonists took possession of an area Powhatan Indians called Tsenacomoco and established an English colony named ‘
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
’. They exploited the indigenous community to create the maps that helped them establish colonies. Later in the Middle East, British colonial authorities in Palestine enforced a property mapping regime to replace local practices that negotiated borders and land use, shifting power from peasants to colonial institutions. Critical cartographers point to the rising popularity of digital mapping systems (such as
Google Maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panoramic views of streets ( Street View), real-time traffic conditions, and rou ...
,
Apple Maps Apple Maps is a web mapping service developed by Apple Inc. The default map system of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS, it provides directions and estimated times of arrival for driving, walking, cycling, and public transportation navigation. ...
, and Microsoft Bing Maps) as highlighting the role of cartography in representing occupied territories. While parts of the occupied territories are labeled on the maps (for example, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip), the name of country associated with these territories is not always labeled on the map.


Counter-mapping

Counter-mapping mostly refers to maps made by
indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...
cartographers but can include maps from other sources as well. Counter-mappers work in reaction to what they describe as encroachment by colonial influences. Counter-maps have been used to press indigenous claims for rights over land. Many critical cartographers have engaged in counter-mapping to rewrite the narrative of the history of Israel's expansion into territories contested with Palestine. One example is th
Counter Cartographies Collective’s map
of how much of the land belonged to which country since 1948. Another example is how Palestinian refugees themselves used Google Earth to map the original Palestinian villages Israel destroyed in the aftermath of its independence in 1948. These maps are attempts at showing a Palestinian perspective on the Israel-Palestine conflict.


Kibera, Kenya

In 2008, a team of cartographers worked with the residents of
Kibera Kibera (Kinubi: ''Forest'' or ''Jungle'') is a division of Nairobi Area, Kenya, and neighbourhood of the city of Nairobi, from the city centre. Kibera is the largest slum in Nairobi, and the largest urban slum in Africa.http://www.dominionpa ...
,
Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...
to map the city. Since then, a trained team of locals have gathered census data of over 15,000 people and mapped 5000 structures, services (public toilets, schools), and infrastructures (drainage system, water and electricity supply) in the village of Kianda, one of the 13 villages in Kibera. From the data gathered in Kianda, the Map Kibera Project team estimated that Kibera could be inhabited by a total population ranging from 235,000 to a maximum of 270,000 people. In 2011,
Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campu ...
produced a documentary about the story of mapping Kibera. The mapping of Kibera is an example of counter-mapping, as the indigenous people of Kibera participated in the mapping of their own land rather than have their land mapped from strictly outside sources. Before the residents mapped their city, the city's area was a blank space on Google Maps noted with only the label of “Kibera”, but now includes significantly more detail.


Mercator projection

In 1569,
Gerardus Mercator Gerardus Mercator (; 5 March 1512 – 2 December 1594) was a 16th-century geographer, cosmographer and Cartography, cartographer from the County of Flanders. He is most renowned for creating the Mercator 1569 world map, 1569 world map based on ...
introduced a map projection of the Earth which is now known as the
Mercator projection The Mercator projection () is a cylindrical map projection presented by Flemish geographer and cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569. It became the standard map projection for navigation because it is unique in representing north as up and sou ...
, with the purpose of preserving compass bearings at the cost of distorting other aspects of size and shape. This projection maintained equally spaced longitudinal lines but spaced out the latitudinal lines. These lines were spaced farther apart as their distance from the Equator increased. The purpose of this change in spacing is to assure that if one measures how many degrees east of north a certain direction is, it will always appear on the map as just that many degrees clockwise from a line that points upward, regardless of where it is on the map. However, this has the effect that areas farther away from the
Equator The equator is a circle of latitude, about in circumference, that divides Earth into the Northern and Southern hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, halfway between the North and South poles. The term can als ...
seam to be disproportionately large.
Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...
, for example, appears to be larger than the continent of
Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
. In reality, Africa's area is 14 times greater than that of Greenland. Many cartographers argued that, because size is often associated with power and/or importance, Europe being represented as disproportionately large relative to places like Africa and Oceania perpetuates notions of
Eurocentrism Eurocentrism (also Eurocentricity or Western-centrism) is a worldview that is centered on Western civilization or a biased view that favors it over non-Western civilizations. The exact scope of Eurocentrism varies from the entire Western worl ...
.” Web mapping applications use a version of the Mercator projection known as the
Web Mercator Web Mercator, Google Web Mercator, Spherical Mercator, WGS 84 Web Mercator or WGS 84/Pseudo-Mercator is a variant of the Mercator map projection and is the de facto standard for Web mapping applications. It rose to prominence when Google Maps adop ...
. Other mapping projections include the
Peters Peters may refer to: People * Peters (surname) * Peters Band, a First Nations band in British Columbia, Canada Places United States * Peters, California, a census-designated place * Peters, Florida, a town * Peters Township, Kingman County, Kan ...
and
Robinson projection The Robinson projection is a map projection of a world map which shows the entire world at once. It was specifically created in an attempt to find a good compromise to the problem of readily showing the whole globe as a flat image. The Robinson ...
. The Peters projection attempts to preserve area but distorts the shapes of landmasses. The Robinsons projections tries to reduce the amount of distortion overall and can be seen as a compromise between the other two.


See also

*
Cartographic censorship Cartographic censorship is the deliberate modification of publicly available maps in order to disguise, remove, or obfuscate potentially strategic locations or buildings, such as military bases, power plants or transmitters. Sensitive objects and ...
*
Collaborative mapping Collaborative mapping, also known as citizen mapping, is the aggregation of Web mapping and user-generated content, from a group of individuals or entities, and can take several distinct forms. With the growth of technology for storing and sharing ...
*
Counter-mapping Counter-mapping is creating maps that challenge "dominant power structures, to further seemingly progressive goals". counter-mapping is used in multiple disciplines to reclaim colonized territory. Counter-maps are prolific in indigenous cultures, ...
*
Neogeography Neogeography (literally "new geography") is the use of geographical techniques and tools for personal and community activities or by a non-expert group of users. Application domains of neogeography are typically not formal or analytical. From the p ...
* Participatory 3D modelling *
Participatory GIS Participatory GIS (PGIS) or public participation geographic information system (PPGIS) is a participatory approach to spatial planning and spatial information and communications management. PGIS combines Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) ...
* Public participation geographic information system *
Spatial citizenship Spatial citizenship describes the ability of individuals and groups to interact and participate in societal spatial decision making through the reflexive production and use of geo-media (geographic media such as maps, virtual globes, GIS, and the ...
* Traditional knowledge GIS * Volunteered geographic information


References

{{Reflist
Crampton, Jeremy W. and John Krygier. 2006. "An Introduction to Critical Cartography"
* Pickles, John. 2004. ''A History of Spaces''. Routledge. * Wood, Denis. 1992. ''The Power of Maps'', New York/London, The Guilford Press. Cartography Critical theory