Maps Flashcards
Situated Perspective
the way one understands political geography is set in particular historical socio cultural and individual contexts
What does the spatial organization of politics entail?
The geography of political institutions: states, international organizations, electoral districts etc.
What are examples of how relations of power change identities and access of places?
capital cities, empires, urban/rural, orientalism, ethnocentrism
What scale represents how places and people relate to each other?
local politics to int. geopolitics
what are geopolitical representations?
how geographical representations influence politics
Is cartography influenced by politics?
Yes - MAPS ARE NOT NEUTRAL!
- choice of colour, scale, projection, symbolization, how its presented
- who creates it?
- what purpose am I using it for
- ex. Crimea, Western Sahara
What happens when new maps are made? (6 things)
- changes realities
- changes purpose of land
- changes flow of resources
- changes distributions of power
- renaming (cultural erasure)
- naturalize colonization process
What are the political characteristics of maps? (5)
- information and representation: scale, projection, symbolization
- eye in the sky/gods trick: distance from the ‘material world’
- instrument of power: who draws the map? from what sources? for whom? with what purposes? and what effects?
- authority -> mastery of space
- creates rights/ownership of space
Types of maps
Topographic: shape and surface, roads and prominent features; reference tool showing outlines of selected natural and man made features of earth
Thematic: tool to communicate geographical concepts such as distribution of population densities, climate, movement of goods, land use, etc.
Components of maps
- title
- scale
- date
- compass/orientation
- legend with meaning of symbols
- grid
- author/publisher
- sources
Humanitarian Maps:
contain things like conflict zones, refugee populations, amount injured, up to date hostility areas, controlled territory
how do maps visualize the world?
- divide world into distinct groups
- centralized particular region
- puts world in particular lens (ex. road map)
- reflects particular understanding of world
- partial and/or biased representation
- categorization and reductionism
- ownership and sovereignty claims
Peters projection
first at scale map; global south much bigger/more prominent
how has mapping changed?
