Critical cartography is a set of
map
A map is a symbolic depiction of interrelationships, commonly spatial, between things within a space. A map may be annotated with text and graphics. Like any graphic, a map may be fixed to paper or other durable media, or may be displayed on ...
ping practices and methods of analysis grounded in
critical theory
Critical theory is a social, historical, and political school of thought and philosophical perspective which centers on analyzing and challenging systemic power relations in society, arguing that knowledge, truth, and social structures are ...
, 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.
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 ...
, 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 Wood, Jeremy Crampton, John Krygier, Kevin St. Martin, and Nour Joudah.
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 ...
(1932–1991) was a geographer, cartographer, and map historian. He lectured at the universities of
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
,
Liverpool
Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...
,
Exeter
Exeter ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and the county town of Devon in South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol.
In Roman Britain, Exeter w ...
, and
Wisconsin Milwaukee. Some of his works include ''
Christopher Greenwood, 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.
Harley's 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 (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, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...
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, United States. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical ...
,
University of Georgia
The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia, United States. Chartered in 1785, it is the oldest public university in th ...
, and
George Mason University
George Mason University (GMU) is a Public university, public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. Located in Northern Virginia near Washington, D.C., the university is named in honor of George Mason, a Founding Father ...
. 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 History of ideas, historian of ideas and Philosophy, philosopher who was also an author, Literary criticism, literary critic, Activism, political activist, and teacher. Fo ...
in Geography.
Topics and themes in critical cartography
Cartographic censorship
There are two primary types of
cartographic censorship. 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, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.'' Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sin ...
, including
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus (; between 25 August and 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an Italians, Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed Voyages of Christopher Columbus, four Spanish-based voyages across the At ...
, 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 U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
. 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 panorama, interactive panoramic views of streets (Google Street View, Street View ...
,
Apple Maps
Apple Maps is a web mapping service developed by Apple Inc. As the default map system of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, visionOS, and watchOS, it provides directions and estimated times of arrival for driving, walking, cycling, and public trans ...
, 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 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 mapof 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.
A third example is the Palestine Land Society's Village Reconstruction competition, through which Palestinian architecture students are tasked with reconstructing and designing the destroyed villages of 1948, and counter-cartography is geared towards futures as well as pasts. 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 language, Kinubi: ''Forest'' or ''Jungle'') is a division and neighbourhood of Nairobi, Kenya, from the city centre. Kibera is the largest slum in Nairobi, and also the largest urban slum in all of Africa. The 2009 Kenya Popul ...
,
Kenya
Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...
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 ca ...
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 Flemish people, Flemish geographer, cosmographer and Cartography, cartographer. He is most renowned for creating the Mercator 1569 world map, 1569 world map based on a new Mercator pr ...
introduced a map projection of the Earth which is now known as the
Mercator projection, 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 the circle of latitude that divides Earth into the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Southern Hemisphere, Southern Hemispheres of Earth, hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, about in circumferen ...
seam to be disproportionately large.
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...
, 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. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...
. In reality, Africa's area is 14 times greater than that of Greenland. Some cartographers have 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)
refers to viewing Western world, the West as the center of world events or superior to other cultures. The exact scope of Eurocentrism varies from the entire Western world to just the con ...
. Web mapping applications use a version of the Mercator projection known as the
Web Mercator.
Other mapping projections include the
Peters and
Robinson projection
The Robinson projection is a map projection of a world map that 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 Robinson projections tries to reduce the amount of distortion overall and can be seen as a compromise between the other two.
See also
*
Cartographic censorship
*
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, ...
* ''
How to Lie with Maps''
*
Neogeography
*
Participatory 3D modelling
*
Participatory GIS
*
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 t ...
*
Traditional knowledge GIS
*
Volunteered geographic information
Volunteered geographic information (VGI) is the harnessing of tools to create, assemble, and disseminate geographic data provided voluntarily by individuals. VGI is a special case of the larger phenomenon known as user-generated content, and allows ...
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