The Politics of Cartography

Surprise, surprise – as it turns out, the “harder” sciences are subject to the same biases as their practitioners….they are NOT IMMUNE to the flaws of human logic and whatnot.  They are practiced within social constructs and while we are getting closer and closer to eliminating human bias and subjectivity WE ARE NOT THERE YET. And yes, some do better than others. But that’s not what I want to talk about.  SO – let’s investigate one of the areas we could argue is the most taken for granted: map-making.

What political implications might we draw from any given projection? Who draws the maps we use in our everyday and why? And as always – what’s at stake? And for whom?

Watch this excellent video and then share it with everyone you’ve ever met and continue the conversation and question-asking.  This one covers a range of approaches from the limitations of human “sight” to the difficulty of projecting 3-D objects on a flat surfaces, etc. It’s way more interesting than I can describe. I learned a whole lot.
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