Cartography and Social Justice

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

Maps are efficient modes of communication with a strong hold on people’s imaginations. They are usually quotidian functional artifacts that help individuals find their way and comprehend the world. As graphic representations, maps are short-hand for complex processes, conditions, and concepts. They tell convincing stories by appearing objective through the conscious efforts of mapmakers or, on a more basic level, through what’s shown or left out of the map. With the use of geolocation in everything from hand-held devices to wind farm turbines, mapping is ubiquitous, authoritative, and taken-for-granted. The ways we map, however, are inextricable from violent forms of power: Mapping conventions reflect legacies of imperial exploration, resource extraction, colonization, and state control. These strategic activities have required the collection of more precise data and objective scientific procedures, resulting in what seems to be value-neutral “mirrorings” of space rather than interest-laden renderings of the surface of the planet. This course considers the role of maps and power dynamics of contemporary mapping in political struggles—specifically, how maps are political and how mapping can be a political act. First, we will examine the genealogy of map power, defined as a way of representing space as an abstraction from concrete reality in order to facilitate its domination and control. Second, while maps reinforce dynamics of coercion and manipulation due to map power, maps can be—and are—used as tools to support social movements for liberation and social justice. Thus we will explore two broad efforts that involve critical and creative cartographic practices: map critique as a social justice project, and mapping as a method of resistance. Map critique involves social theory applications that reveal the formal construction of maps and their use as tools of power. Students will gain familiarity with counter-mapping projects that challenge official maps and lay claim to resources/land or render alternative worlds, such as the Gall-Peters projection controversy and indigenous atlases/Aboriginal Mapping Network. Mapping techniques and technologies are also utilized as applied methodologies to resist the status quo. Students will have an opportunity to engage with at least three ways that mapping is used as a method to enhance social justice work: Mapping as a form of protest and argument, from do-it-yourself cartography to geopolitical critique maps; mapping as immersive social commentary, exemplified by alternative history trails and collective walks that feature marginalized experiences and local knowledges; and mapping for community education and grassroots local organizing, wherein mapping functions as a form of information sharing and process-based participatory learning. Throughout the semester we will discuss a number of social and policy issues related to map literacy as an educational tool for envisioning and advocating social change.