Approches de la Cartographie dans les Sciences Sociales: Enjeux, Critiques, et Competences Pratiques

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Cartographic representation is a traditional method in the social sciences, well beyond geography alone. History, political science and sociology have largely adopted this tool, which is also increasingly present in the media and in the professional world of administrations and businesses (for example marketing, security, etc.). Today we are witnessing an inflation of the card and its derivatives in all these areas. In addition, digital technologies today make map making much simpler, and within the reach of researchers and professionals without the mediation of cartographers, except at a very qualified level. These changes justify interdisciplinary methodological teaching for Sciences Po students, with two main objectives. The first is to acquire critical competence on cartographic representations, not only through understanding the methodological, semiological and epistemological foundations of cartography, but also as a discourse on the social world. The second objective of the seminar is, in connection with various examples of multidisciplinary issues linked to teaching at Sciences Po, to enable students to create cartographic objects by mastering basic computer tools. We think of electoral cartography, geopolitics and international relations, urban issues, history in general and that of the environment in particular, etc.