Mapping. A critical introduction to cartography and GIS / Картирование. Краткое введение в картографию и ГИС

This book is an introduction to critical cartography and GIS. As such, it is neither a textbook nor a software manual. My purpose is to discuss various aspects of mapping theory and practice, from critical social theory to some of the most interesting new mapping practices such as map hacking and the geospatial web. It is an appreciation of a more critical cartography and GIS.

Why is such a book needed? We can begin with silence. If you open any of today’s prominent textbooks on cultural, political, or social geography it is more than likely that you will find little or no discussion of mapping, cartography, or GIS. A recent and well-received book on political geography for example (Jones et al. 2004) makes no mention of maps in any form, although it is subtitled “space, place and politics.” Similarly, Don Mitchell’s influential book on cultural geography and the precursor to the series in which this book appears (Mitchell 2000) deals at length with landscape, representation, racial and national geographies, but is completely and utterly devoid of the role of mapping in these important issues (and this despite Mitchell’s call for a “new” cultural geography that does not separate culture from politics!). And while a book on Key Concepts in Geography (Holloway et al. 2003) can state that “geographers have . . . studied the ways in which maps have been produced and used not only as objects of imperial power but also of postcolonial resistance” (Holloway et al. 2003: 79) the subject is then quietly dropped. Yet is it the fault of these authors – accomplished scholars – that maps and mappings are not considered part of larger geographical enquiry? <...>