Rethinking Maps : New Frontiers in Cartographic Theory

Maps are changing. They have become important and fashionable once more. Rethinking Maps brings together leading researchers to explore how maps are being rethought, made and used, and what these changes mean for working cartographers, applied mapping research, and cartographic scholarship. It offers a contemporary assessment of the diverse forms that mapping now takes and, drawing upon a number of theoretic perspectives and disciplines, provides an insightful commentary on new ontological and epistemological thinking with respect to cartography.

This book presents a diverse set of approaches to a wide range of map forms and activities in what is presently a rapidly changing field. It employs a multi-disciplinary approach to important contemporary mapping practices, with chapters written by leading theorists who have an international reputation for innovative thinking. Much of the new research around mapping is emerging as critical dialogue between practice and theory and this book has chapters focused on intersections with play, race and cinema. Other chapters discuss cartographic representation, sustainable mapping and visual geographies. It also considers how alternative models of map creation and use such as open-source mappings and map mash-up are being creatively explored by programmers, artists and activists. There is also an examination of the work of various ‘everyday mappers’ in diverse social and cultural contexts.

This blend of conceptual chapters and theoretically directed case studies provides an excellent resource suited to a broad spectrum of researchers, advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students in human geography, GIScience and cartography, visual anthropology, media studies, graphic design and computer graphics. Rethinking Maps is a necessary and significant text for all those studying or having an interest in cartography.

Martin Dodge works at the University of Manchester as a Lecturer in Human Geography researching the geography of cyberspace. He is the curator of a web-based Atlas of Cyberspace (www.cybergeography.org/atlas) and has co-authored three books, Mapping Cyberspace, Atlas of Cyberspace and Geographic Visualization.

Rob Kitchin is Director of the National Institute of Regional and Spatial Analysis and Professor of Human Geography at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. He has published twelve books and is the Managing Editor of Social and Cultural Geography and co-editor-in-chief of the International Encyclopaedia of Human Geography.

Chris Perkins is Senior Lecturer in Geography and Map Curator in the University of Manchester. His research interests focus on the social contexts of mapping and he is the author and editor of 6 books, including World Mapping Today and the Companion Encyclopaedia of Geography.