Radical Cartographies: Participatory Mapmaking from Latin America

Cartography has a troubled history as a technology of power. The production and distribution of maps, often understood to be ideological representations that support the interests of their developers, have served as tools of colonization, imperialism, and global development, advancing Western notions of space and place at the expense of Indigenous peoples and other marginalized communities. But over the past two decades, these marginalized populations have increasingly turned to participatory mapping practices to develop new, innovative maps that reassert local concepts of place and space, thus harnessing the power of cartography in their struggles for justice.

In twelve essays written by community leaders, activists, and scholars, Radical Cartographies critically explores the ways in which participatory mapping is being used by Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and other traditional groups in Latin America to preserve their territories and cultural identities. Through this pioneering volume, the authors fundamentally rethink the role of maps, with significant lessons for marginalized communities across the globe, and launch a unique dialogue about the radical edge of a new social cartography.

Bjørn Sletto is an associate professor of community and regional planning at the University of Texas at Austin. His work on participatory mapping has been published in Environment and Planning, Cuadernos de Geografía, and Current Anthropology, among other places.

Alfredo Wagner is a professor of graduate studies at the State University of Maranhão and founder of the New Social Cartography Project of the Amazon.

Joe Bryan is an associate professor in geography at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and coauthor of Weaponizing Maps: Indigenous Peoples and Counterinsurgency in the Americas.

Charles Hale is the dean of the School of Social Sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and author of Más que un Indio: Racial Ambivalence and Neoliberal Multiculturalism in Guatemala.