Radical geography part five: critical cartography / critical GIS

radical geography

part five: critical cartography / critical GIS

geography and the Cold War legacy

“The Second World War marked an epochal change in the relation of geographers to war and the military. The military had long utilized the skills of geographers, but from World War II the relation changed at least in the United States, and the military began less drawing upon existing geographical knowledge than directing a new kind that was increasingly formal, instrumental, and model driven.”

Mathematical modeling has left its mark on many disciplines, and is now a relatively unquestioned part of how science works. As economist Paul Krugman said, "To be taken seriously an idea has to be something you can model.”

– Trevor Barnes, “Geography’s Underworld”


-- classical "received view" philosophy of science: models are superfluous; they don't add to axioms, laws, and theories (the goal of science) because they possess the same deductive structure as the theory to which they correspond. "Models did not add to explanation, but were merely parasitic upon existing axioms, laws and theories.“

-- Another view says that models don't just describe or help explain the world, but they also intervene, changing it (the rational choice model justified Jeffrey Sachs's shock therapy for Russia, structural adjustment policies in the third world, etc.)

-- it wasn't only the bomb that was constructed post WW2 / a whole assemblage was required, which includes not only mathematical modeling across the social sciences too -- "After the bomb is built, and even dropped, the assemblage remains. War continues."


Basically, this whole assemblage that was constructed during the cold war “has one goal: to beat an enemy.”

Geographers began building models that were directly Cold War-related (modeling a new highway system to get people out of Seattle if the Russians dropped nukes on it) and beyond (models to study the spatial organisation of land use, differences in urban rent, predict demand for transportation at urban sites, etc.)

The military-industrial complex still affects how geography is done today

thinking critically / maps and power

"Under what circumstances is a map authored?" (Jeremy Crampton)

"Maps are active; they actively construct knowledge, they exercise power and they can be a powerful means of promoting social change." (Crampton & Krygier, in “An Introduction to Critical Cartography,” 2006)

Are all maps political? Can there be such a thing as a neutral map?


Check out this really long sentence by Wood & Krygier:In effect, the map is actually a system of propositions (a proposition is a statement affirming or denying the existence of something), an argument about existence; and if it started with paddy fields and long fields and manor lands and with the states these made up and the world these states composed, or wanted to imagine, wanted ‘everyone’ to imagine they composed, the map has gone on to a long career rich in the affirmation of the existence of a bewildering variety of things, some whose existence we continue to affirm (e.g., all the nation-states we have mentioned), some we have come to deny (the island-continent of California, the Northwest Passage, the open polar sea, etc.), but, in any case, things very hard to imagine without the creative intercession of the map (geologic strata, frontal weather systems, the hole in the ozone, etc.). (forthcoming article, 2009)

i.e., Maps don’t simply describe reality, they create it

http://go.owu.edu/~jbkrygie/krygier_html/research.html


“Critical geographers should start from the premise that maps are rooted in and essential to power and knowledge ... with the understanding that mapmaking acts to ‘codify, to legitimate, and to promote the world views which are prevalent in different periods and places’” (Harris & Hazen)


• What actors, resources, or social relations enabled a particular map to be produced?

• What relations does a particular map enable the reader to see? • Or, otherwise stated, what relations of power and partiality does

the map itself produce? Applied to conservation, these insights open several critical avenues for exploration.

• For instance, how does mapping suggest that certain spaces can, or should, be protected for conservation?

• How does the relative ‘mappability’ of different areas or landscapes encourage the protection of certain features over others?

• How do maps allow readers to imagine certain spaces as uninhabited and appropriate for protection, or already successfully ‘protected’?”

-- Hazen & Harris, 2006

thinking critically / questions


“-- the map shows that the practice of designating territories for conservation is global in extent, suggesting the relevance of analyses that consider the role of global discourses and institutions in conservation mappings

-- the map invites evaluation of the observable differences in percentage land area dedicated to conservation nationally and regionally—as expressed by differentiated color values. For instance, the emphasis on conservation in certain post-colonial contexts raises questions about colonial legacies in which contemporary conservation practices may be embedded (see Neumann 1997).

By contrast, the degree of correspondence between conservation territories and industrialized countries suggests that conservation mappings may have more to do with political or socio-economic conditions than biodiversity requirements. In cases such as Germany (26.9%) or Switzerland (25.7%) high percentages of land protected may be more a function of topography (e.g., mountainous areas), economic development, or political viability to designate land for recreation than biodiversity needs per se. …”


While this map readily suggests certain types of interrogations, other critical evaluations are minimized or foreclosed. For instance, the choice of the global scale and the focus on land area bypasses issues related to who manages these protected areas, and towards what ends.

Further, representing conservation spaces as percentages of national land area says nothing about which areas are effective, or which mappings relate to areas of high biodiversity or species endemism.

In a more general sense, this map can be read as endorsing the idea that conservation territories are comparable across contexts—a questionable endeavor given the importance of geographic and species variabilities.

...it is provocative to imagine what other types of maps could be produced to complement standard representations,

especially possibilities that might enable critical readings of conservation practice, highlight the urgency of species losses, or otherwise more readily convey power inequalities common to conservation practice.

(all from Hazen & Harris, “Counter(mapping) for Conservation”)


For every map we encounter, we could ask:What does this map do?Who created it? Why? How?Who does it serve?

Try questioning these various maps…

thinking critically / projections


Arno Peters thought that the Mercator projection gave “a fully false picture, particularly regarding the non-white-peopled lands...it over-values the white man and distorts the picture of the world to the advantage of the colonial masters of the time” -- in the mid-1970s he championed this “Peters” projection


map projections

countermapping

• If maps are a technology of power, what can mapmakers do to question or subvert prevailing assumptions?

• Countermapping is a term that implies "using mapping to overcome predominant power hierarchies, interspecies injustices, and other power effects." (Harris & Hazen, 2006)

• That is to say: mapping can be used to challenge the dominant order.

• “We understand counter-mapping as any effort that fundamentally questions the assumptions or biases of cartographic conventions, that challenges predominant power effects of mapping, or that engages in mapping in ways that upset power relations.” (Harris & Hazen, 2006)

• For example, if fishermen are using maps in ways that help them overharvest fish— well, one could also create maps that would be used to identify where fish should be protected, and help with fish conservation.

countermappingCountermapping is also used to help identify indigenous boundaries...

countermapping

“More indigenous territory has been claimed by maps than by guns. This assertion has its corollary: more indigenous territory can be reclaimed and defended by maps than by guns. Whereas maps like guns must be accurate, they have the additional advantages that they are inexpensive, don't require a permit, can be openly carried and used, internationally neutralize the invader's one-sided legalistic claims, and can be duplicated and transmitted electronically which defies all borders, all pretexts, and all occupations.” Bernard Nietschmann (1995)

• There are real questions about whether you can use the master's mapping tools to re-map the master's house, so-to-speak – we will return to this a bit later

Technology / GPS• a global network of between 24 and 32

satellites that was created by the US Department of Defense.

• used by anyone with a GPS receiver that wants to obtain precise coordinates of a given location (airplanes, ships, military uses, civilian navigation, land surveying, mobile phones, etc.)

• Although it was developed as military technology, Reagan made it available for civilian use in the early 1990s.

• It used to be that the highest quality of signal was available just to the military, and civilian use was degraded, but this "Selective availability" was turned off in 2000, which increased the precision from about 100m to about 20m.

• Future satellites will not have this "selective ability" quality (the military has figured out how to jam GPS signals to "hostile forces" anyway).

Technology / GPS• China is planning a global

system called Compass with 35 satellites

• the EU & European Space Agency is well underway with its civilian use GPS project called Galileo

• Russia has a kind of run-down satellite network called GLONASS which India is helping bring up-to-date.

GPS: cool or creepy?

• GPS technology has the obvious potential for surveillance. • in 2001, a man sued a local car rental company in New

Haven, CT, after it used GPS technology to track him, and then fined him $450 for speeding three times.

While describing why "tracking every move by satellite" is problematic, geographer Amy Propen invokes Foucault's description of "Panopticism":

[I]n order to be exercised, this power had to be given the instrument of permanent, exhaustive, omnipresent surveillance, capable of making all visible, as long as it could itself remain invisible. It had to be like a faceless gaze that transformed the whole social body into a field of perception: thousands of eyes posted everywhere, mobile attentions ever on the alert. (Foucault, 1979) (qtd. By Propen, “Critical GPS: Towards a New Politics of Location”)

Technology / GIS

GPS data is used in geographic Information Systems, or GIS:

descriptive databases which are used to store / analyze / display spatial information in all kinds of ways (resource management, medical geography, urban planning, archaeology, marketing...)

Is GIS a value-neutral technology?

Technology / GIS

“While many define GIS/computer cartography as ‘tools’, we recognize that ‘tools’ implies something which can be put away and no longer have consequence in ones life until they are needed again. These mapping systems are technologies, something that we may choose to engage with but even if we decided to turn them off and go about our daily routine they will continue to have influence over our lives (Fox et al., 2005b).

Specifically, we define these technologies as a ‘techno-science’, a discipline where technology has become the embodiment of science (see Turnbull, 2000). These technologies modify and transform the worlds that are revealed through them, delivering apparent ‘realities’.” – Johnson, Louis, & Pramano: “Facing the Future: Encouraging Critical Cartographic Literacies in Indigenous Communities”

Technology / GIS

“[I]t is now possible to make educated guesses about any household’s political and religious views, as well as its shopping preferences. ... Indeed, what is most disturbing about this surveillance system— beyond the fact that it is largely unregulated—is that it presumes a notion of closure, a view wherein there is a population of individuals, and where it is possible to obtain measurable knowledge about each. It implies a truly closed society.”

(Amy Propen, qtg. Curry, 1995)

Technology / GIS

Geodemographics – if you go to claritas.com/MyBestSegments, you can access geodemographic data for your zip code

Ex. 21021 (Franklin/Eutaw)

• Bohemian Mix• Low-rise Living• Money & Brains• Urban Achievers• Urban Elders

Technology / GIS

Bohemian MixA collection of mobile urbanites, Bohemian Mix represents the nation's most liberal lifestyles. Its residents are an ethnically diverse, progressive mix of young singles, couples, and families ranging from students to professionals. In their funky rowhouses and apartments, Bohemian Mixers are the early adopters who are quick to check out the latest movie, nightclub, laptop, and microbrew.

Social Group: Urban UptownLifestage Group: Young Achievers 2008 Statistics:US Households: 2,020,210 (1.76%) Median HH

Income: $54,237 Lifestyle Traits• Eat at Au Bon Pain • Buy Spanish/Latin music • Read The Economist • Watch soccer • Audi A4

Technology / GIS

Low-rise LivingThe most economically challenged urban segment, Low-Rise Living

is known as a transient world for middle age, ethnically diverse singles and single parents. Home values are low--about half the national average--and even then less than a quarter of residents can afford to own real estate. Typically, the commercial base of Mom-and-Pop stores is struggling and in need of a renaissance.

Social Group: Urban Cores Lifestage Group: Sustaining Families 2008 Statistics:US Households: 1,610,086 (1.40%) Median HH Income: $24,331 Lifestyle Traits• Shop at Rite-Aid • Domestic travel by bus • Read Ebony • Watch BET • Drive van

Technology / GIS

The segmentation system enables targeting based on virtually any purchase and media behavior.

Purchase Behavior: * Apparel * Appliances * Automotive * Communications * Consumer Package Goods * Financial Services * Home Furnishings * Media Usage * Travel

Media Behavior:

* Television

* Cable

* Internet

* Radio

* Newspapers

* Magazines

technology / power to the people

“In the last few years cartography has been slipping from the control of the powerful elites that have exercised dominance over it for several hundred years. These elites—the great map houses of the west, the state, and to a lesser extent academics—have been challenged by two important developments. First, the actual business of mapmaking, of collecting spatial data and mapping it out, is passing out of the hands of the experts. The ability to make a map, even a stunning interactive 3D map, is now available to anyone with a home computer and an internet connection.” (Jeremy Crampton & John Krygier)

• maps are not only made by geographical "experts" anymore. • New technology has enabled vast numbers of people to create or

collaborate in mapmaking.• Terms for this phenomenon: “neogeography”, “volunteered

cartographic information”

empowering uses of GIS

empowering uses of GIS

Documents

Radical geography part five: critical cartography / critical GIS