The Politics of Mapping. Bernard Debarbieux

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      1 1 The difference of meaning between mapping and cartography is not stabilized even among specialists of the field. In this introduction, in accordance with the title of this book, we focus on mapping broadly defined as the way of thinking, seeing and acting by using maps; comparatively, cartography points more specifically at “the art, science and technology of map-making” which emerged as a scientific discipline in the late 19th century (Kent and Vujakovic, 2018, p. 1). However, some well-known phrases in the field have used the word “cartography” in a different way, such as “critical cartography” or “history of cartography”. In this case, we have kept the word cartography to respect the common use of authors and practitioners. For the sake of convenience, we will also use words derived from “cartography” (cartographer, cartographic production, etc.) interchangeably, i.e. both when referring to “cartography” and “mapping”.

      2 2 Notably the exhibition The Power of Maps, created in 1993 at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Museum of Design, New York, and later hosted at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington.

      3 3 In French, the translation and editing of Harley’s few texts were done by Peter Gould and Antoine Bailly (Harley 1995).

      4 4 Monmonier’s most popular work (1991) was translated into many languages in the years 1990–2000.

      5 5 Speier’s text has been commented on since the turn of the century, notably by Pickles (2004, pp. 44-45) and Herb (1997).

      6 6 Palsky points to certain commentaries on the “Cassini map” which argue that it was intended to constitute a body of knowledge capable of reinforcing the centralization of France in the 18th century and its military power, whereas specialists of this production have shown how it was the result of contingent decisions, always thwarted in its realization (Palsky 2003, p. 212).

      7 7 In French, the word “politique” encompasses the following three concepts of the English language: 1) Polity or “le politique”: the institutional dimension of politics; the institutions of the social world; 2) Politics or “la politique”: all the power relations of the social world, and not only those inherent in the institutions; 3) Policies: “politiques publiques” the set of laws and instruments which orientates the action of governments.

      8 8 This projection is also known as the Gall-Peters projection, after the Scottish minister James Gall who invented it in the 19th century.

      9 9 We have not been able to find the original text published in Spanish in García Torres’ manifesto Estructura (1936), where an early version of the map appears.

      10 10 For an in-depth interpretation of this artistic map and the artist’s intentions (between a desire for decolonization and unassumed cultural mixing), see Rommens (2018).