Teaching the history of geography:Current challenges and future directions

Drawing upon the personal reflections of geographical educators in Brazil, Canada, the UK, and the US, this Forum provides a state-of-the-discipline review of teaching in the history of geography; identifies the practical and pedagogical challenges associated with that teaching; and offers suggestions and provocations as to future innovation. The Forum shows how teaching in the history of geography is valued – as a tool of identity making, as a device for cohort building and professionalization, and as a means of interrogating the disciplinary present – but also how it is challenged by neoliberal educational policies, competing priorities in curriculum design, and sub-disciplinary divisions

The mirage of the metropolis: city imaging in the age of digital chorography

Even as cities evolved geographically, the basis of city imaging (as codified by Kevin Lynch) remained relatively stable for over half a century. More recently, digitally driven transformations in urban life challenge the continued relevance of established city-imaging paradigms. Although digital navigation and mapping devices are readily at hand to neutralize any disorienting predicaments, the ability to image cognitively the wider urban environment remains integral to the construction of a meaningful sense of place. Towards the objective of reconciling city imaging with the place-making challenges of the contemporary metropolis, this paper explores the potential for innovating modes of urban mapping and representation. Specifically, the digital re-envisioning of the historical mapping practice of ‘chorography’ is positioned within Fredric Jameson’s challenge for a new aesthetic of cognitive mapping that enables the situational representation of the individual within the vaster totality. In doing so, the paper contributes to the wider adaptation of urban discourse to digitally propelled shifts in urban life

Thinking Philosophically in Cartography: Toward A Critical Politics of Mapping

The purpose of this paper is to examine some of the context in which mapping is practiced and thought about. I shall make several points. First, our present context is historical and arose from identifiable events that help shape the way mapping takes place today. But every context allows some possibilities and closes off others. Second, our current context is based on a Cartesian–scientific worldview which casts maps as communicators of spatial location. One consequence of this is that we do not take account of maps as helping us find our meaningful place in the world. Third, examining this context as a horizon of possibilities is itself a political project. Finally, some possible components of such a “politics of mapping” are sketched out that might let us understand our horizon of possibilities in order to expand it

Cartography: Performative, participatory, political

Abstract: This report examines the ways in which mapping is performative, participatory and political. Performativity has received increasing attention from scholars, and cartography is no exception. Interest has shifted from the map as object to mapping as practice. Performativity is a cultural, social and political activity; maps as protest and commentary. The internet both facilitates and shapes popular political activism, but scholars have been slow to grasp amateur political mappings, although analysis of political deployments of mapping in state, territorial and imperial projects remains rich. Finally, some authors suggest that cartography be understood as existence (becoming) rather than essence (fi xed ontology)

A History of Distributed Mapping

My intent in this paper is to answer two questions: what were the principal events in the development of distributed mapping, and how should a narrative of its development be written? Distributed mapping is a mode of cartography arising from the convergence of the World Wide Web, GIS, and digital cartography. It marks a significant break with traditional cartography because (1) the set of rules that shape the map archive are being fundamentally altered; (2) the distributivity of spatial data, their analysis and visualization are at unprecedented levels; and (3) new forms of interactivity are emerging. After discussing some theoretical issues in the history of cartography, I locate the multiple origins of distributed mapping in the work on animated mapping during the quantitative revolution in geography and the availability of computing power from the 1960s through the 1980s. The technology is a series of non-deterministic negotiations with resistance leading to delays in implementation, back-tracking, and multiple avenues of exploration. The popularization of the World Wide Web during the latter part of the 1990s brought commercial attention to distributed mapping, not as cartography, but as support service for travel sales channels. Commercialization will detach distributed mapping from academic geography as it did with GIS before it. In conclusion, I outline the forseeable research issues for distributed mapping