The Dictionary of Human Geography (19 page)

cartogram
A customized map projection that adjusts area or distance to reveal patterns not apparent on a conventional base map. For area cartograms this adjustment might be specific, as when the areas of countries or provinces are made proportional to their populations (Dorling, 1993), or expedient, as when small places such as Luxembourg or Rhode Island are rendered sufficiently large so that their symbols on a choropLeth map are readily visible. Similarly, distance cartograms might adjust distances to reflect transport cost relative to a particular place (Monmonier, 1993, pp. 198 200) or rearrange transport routes to promote clarity, as on the widely imitated London Underground map. mm (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Gastner and Newman (2004). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
cartographic reason
The belief that carto graphic and geographical representations are direct representations of an external and independent world or, as the philosopher Richard Rorty (1979) put it more generally, they are the ?mirror of nature? (see also cartes ianism; objectivity). In this view, the task of cartography and geography is to represent the external world faithfully, and the criterion for success and hence ?truth? is the degree to which this correspondence is achieved. This view of representation depends upon a cartographic theory of correspondence in which, to take the metaphor at its most literal, information about the world is accurately transmitted (primary sense data) through a medium (the map) to a receiver (the map reader) (for a critical reading, see Pickles, 1992). The accuracy of the transmission of the information from the real world to the reader is a measure of the accuracy and hence effectiveness of the mapping process. This representational notion of science presumed that the world was external and independent of the observer and that the nominally scientific observer could describe the world in ways that corresponded directly to the reality of the world. Such foundational and objectivist epistemologies have variously been referred to as observer epistemologies or, in an acknow ledgement of the effects that they produce, the ?god trick? (Haraway, 1991d) and the ?Cartesian Anxiety? (Bernstein, 1983). It was this latter term that Gregory (1994) adapted as the carto graphic anxiety to characterize a particular mode of geographicaL imagination. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Some commentators have associated such critiques of cartographic reason with the influence of postmodernism on human geog raphy, but some of the most telling interven tions have been inspired by modernism and its sustained interrogation of representational practices. Thus for Olsson (2007, p. 4), the thought of such a tabula rasa, a pristine ?world? uncontaminated by the act of knowing, is literally unimaginable, and theories of human knowledge that presume such a beginning point or possibility are deeply flawed. Instead, for Olsson, the drawing and interpreting of a line is the cartographic act exemplified. It is always an act that creates meaning; every drawing of a line is the creation of a distinction, the delimit ing of an identity, and the creation of a bound ary. As Pickles (2004) shows, by inscribing lines, creating distinctions, and drawing bor ders, cartography and, by extension, geo graphy, can be seen as a part of a diverse array of cultural practices and politics that are con stantly producing and reproducing worlds (see also Farinelli, Olsson and Reichert, 1994). jpi (NEW PARAGRAPH)
cartography
(1) The design and production of maps by individuals or organizations; (2) the scientific study of the technology of mapmaking and the effectiveness of maps as communica tion devices; and (3) the scholarly examination of the societal role and impact of maps. The term?s association with mapmaking reflects lex ical roots in carte (French for map) and graphie (Greek for writing). Although mapmaking is an ancient art, cartography is a nineteenth century word, introduced in 1839 by Portuguese scholar Manuel Francisco de Barros e Sousa, Viscount of Santarem, who used it to describe map study in the same way that historiography refers to the history of historical writing (Wolter, 1975). Although Santarem referred only to early maps, the word evolved to include con temporary maps and mapping as well as ancient artefacts (Harley, 1987, p. 12). (NEW PARAGRAPH) As a synonym for mapmaking, cartography is often construed to include the collection of geographical information through systematic surveys, formal or otherwise, of the physical landscape or its human occupants. In an insti tutional context, cartography might refer narrowly to the production of artwork for printed maps (also called ?map finishing') or more broadly to the overall mission of a com mercial firm such as Rand McNally or a gov ernment agency such as the Ordnance Survey. Although individuals working as freelance mapmakers or non faculty staff members of an academic geography department are still content to call their work cartography and themselves cartographers, the term's other institutional connotations declined markedly in the final years of the twentieth century, when new technologies (see digital cartog raphy; geographic information systems; remote sensing) and new business models undermined the paper map's traditional role in storing and distributing geographical infor mation, and organizations at different levels replaced ?cartography' as a descriptor with more fashionable labels based on ?geospatial' or ?geographical information'. (NEW PARAGRAPH) As a scientific endeavour focused on the increasing efficiency in mapmaking, improving the reliability of map communication, or enhancing the understanding of cognitive processes involved in decoding and using maps, cartography remains an active if some what retrenched sub discipline of geography. Moreover, its boundary with geographic information science is blurred insofar as many (perhaps most) academics trained as cartographers not only understand the power and limitations of geospatial technology but know how to use GI software. Similarly, many (but probably not most) academics trained as GI scientists not only appreciate the map as an interface and display device but also recog nize the inadequacy of current GI software as a design tool. Labelling became especially important in the 1990s, as older faculty retooled and academic departments converted course titles and job descriptions from cartog raphy to GIS. The American Cartographer became Cartography and Geographic Information (NEW PARAGRAPH) Systems in 1990, only to reposition itself as Cartography and Geographic Information Science nine years later. Despite this blatant but apparently successful attempt to retain market share through re branding, the journal remains committed to improving the practice and understanding of map communication, albeit with a clear emphasis on electronic and digital cartography. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Map design research has theoretical, tech nical and more ostensibly scientific empirical themes, with the latter often relying on subject testing to improve pedagogical approaches to map reading, enhance understanding of how the human eye brain system processes map information (MacEachren, 1995), and evaluate the effectiveness of competing solu tions to design problems (Montello, 2002). In the latter three empirical realms, academic cartographers constitute a numerical and philo sophical majority only in design related carto graphic research, which also includes work on dynamic and interactive maps, multi sensory cartographic interfaces (see visualization), and tactile maps for persons with impaired vision (Perkins, 2002). Not surprisingly, educa tional psychologists and cognitive psychologists dominate explorations ofmap reading and cog nitive mapping, respectively. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Arthur Robinson's The look of maps (1952) was the seminal work in empirical map design research, a topic taken up in various guises by Robinson's graduate students and their intel lectual offspring. Robinson held that effective map design required an appreciation of the design's impact on map viewers, whose ability to decode cartographic symbols was under standably impaired if they could not read labels or detect crucial differences in line thickness, greytones or colour. Aligned philo sophically with the logical positivism of the quantitative revolution, map design researchers uncritically adopted psychophys ics, a paradigm in experimental psychology that treats the magnitude of a response as a power function of the magnitude of the acti vating stimulus (Montello, 2002, pp. 288 9). A succession of empirical studies attempted to ?rescale' graduated circles, line weights and greytones to the perceptual prowess of a hypo thetical average map reader, an attractive con cept undermined by variations in cognitive style, training and prior knowledge as well as by the unavoidable distractions of nearby sym bols in the ?map environment?. Although less ambitious studies of ?just noticeable differ ences' among lines, greytones and colours provided reliable guidance for mapmakers, map design research lost momentum in the 1980s, when the shortcomings of psychophys ical rescaling became apparent. Despite this disappointment, subject testing remains a useful strategy for evaluating solutions to problems in map design, and empirical studies experienced a revival in the 1990s, when the computer proved a valuable tool for testing subjects and qualitative methods such as focus group interviews offered further insights (Suchan and Brewer, 2000). (NEW PARAGRAPH) Computers fostered numerous technical advances as well, including automated strategies for placing labels in non overlapping locations, generalizing linear features, classifying data for choropLeth maps, interpolating isolines, gen erating oblique views of three dimensional surfaces, and creating visually effective ani mated and interactive maps (Monmonier and McMaster, 2004). Although the computer was ostensibly an instrument of mapmaking, these techniques clearly functioned as tools for map design insofar as the map author could readily experiment with thresholds, parameters and methods of symbolization. Although the limi tations of psychophysics were readily apparent in the 1980s, interactive maps that the user could query with a cursor further undermined the need to improve value estimation by rescal ing map symbols. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Two other theories prominent in cartography in the 1970s were the communication model and a conceptual framework called visual vari ables. Derived from feedback loop models in information theory, the cartographic com munication model in its simplest form treated the map as a channel connecting a map author (source) with a percipient (destination). A more elaborate version treated the map author as a filter that helped form the percipient's view of the world and added a reverse flow (feed back), which encouraged a modification of the map's design or content to promote a more accurate transmission of the map author's intended message. Particularly noteworthy was a comparatively sophisticated modification by Antonin Kolacny (1969), whose model described the cartographer's reality and the map user's reality as overlapping but not com pletely coincident subsets of a larger reality. Although the communication paradigm received considerable attention in the academic press and no doubt heightened awareness of communication among academic cartograph ers, the notion that all maps, or even most maps, contained a specific message was largely viewed as na?ve or trivial by the 1980s, when computer assisted cartography began to command increased attention (Antle and Klinkenberg, 1999). By contrast, French semiologist Jacques Bertin's (1983) notion of visual vari ables, especially the six retinal variables (size, shape, hue, value, pattern and orientation) under the map author's control, proved more relevant to map design, and remains a signifi cant theory in cartography. (NEW PARAGRAPH) The third definition of cartography, focused on the societal impact of maps, recognizes that the map is not only a descriptive medium and a problem solving tool but also a text, as that term is used in textual studies, cultural studies and criticaL theory, and that map reading is thus a situated cultural practice. Although aca demic cartographers had at least a vague aware ness of the map?s rhetorical clout, especially in geopoLitics (Tyner, 1982), the 1980s witnessed a renewed interest in cartographic propaganda. Particularly influential were the writings of J.B. Harley, a map historian acutely aware of the map?s role in asserting hegemoNY and justifying exploitation and also its vulner ability to manipulation as an instrument of warfare, colonization and diplomacy. Harley's most important contribution was the notion of cartographic silences, whereby the deliberate omission of features or pLace names might advance a government's territorial claims or promote an illusion of benevolence or effi ciency (Harley, 2001a). These ploys succeeded largely because the public understands the need for selective generalization the map works as a communication device only when the mapmaker consciously avoids graphic clut ter and widely accepts the map as an osten sibly objective, factual representation of reality. And because most maps work, or appear to, the public generally accepts the map author's view of reality, however flawed or one sided. That many maps in the media and the political arena contain discernible biases made the label ?social construction' particularly appropriate (Vujakovic, 1999; Schulten, 2005). (NEW PARAGRAPH) Harley challenged scholars to question the motives of mapmakers by ?deconstructing' contemporary as well as historic maps (cf. deconstruction). Although the studies that followed sometimes bordered on mild para noia in their disdain for evidence of intent or impact Pickles? (2004, pp. 60 71) critique of exaggerated claims for the ?power of maps' includes some good examples other scholars combined an insightful examination of the map author's mindset with a careful appraisal of the institutional context in which maps were produced. For example, Herb (1997) tied the development of strident late 1930s German propaganda maps, which probably convinced few people who were not already Nazi sympa thizers, to a post First World War collaboration between scholars and activist politicians eager for a ?Greater Germany?. Similarly, Cosgrove and della Dora (2005) offer a perceptive inter pretation of the vivid pictorial Second World War maps of Los Angeles Times cartographer Charles Owens, a self trained newspaper artist fascinated with aviation, cinema and photo journalism. Cloud (2002), whose work is similarly grounded in archives and interviews, studied the ?military industrial academic com plex? during the Cold War and provides numerous insights on the intelligence com munity?s contributions to private sector GIS and remote sensing, including the use of classified satellite imagery to update domestic topographic maps and the paradox of con ceptual details of top secret research and development efforts ?hidden in plain sight? in readily available cartographic and photo grammetric journals. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Research on the societal impacts of map ping is also concerned with public access to geographical information, including the role of government and other institutions in produ cing and distributing maps, influencing their content, and restraining or promoting their use. In this context, the map becomes not only an artefact or tool, but also a piece of intellectual property or an opportunity for international collaboration (Rhind, 2000). Moreover, growing use of the internet as a medium for delivering and integrating geo graphical information has not only altered the appearance and usability of maps but substan tially altered relationships between public and private sectors as well as between map author and map viewer (Taylor, 2006a). The increas ingly eclectic nature of maps and mapping promises to make map study a fascinating and challenging geographical endeavour, whatever one calls it. mm (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Harley (2001a); MacEachren (1995); Monmonier (NEW PARAGRAPH) ; Montello (2002); Pickles (2004); Taylor (2006). (NEW PARAGRAPH)