Mapping is in a state of transformation given the development of new spatial technologies and techniques that fundamentally alter the creation, distribution and use of maps. Rethinking Maps brings together leading researchers to explore how maps are being rethought, made and used, and what these transformations mean for working cartographers, everyday map creators and users, 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 insightful commentary on new ontological and epistemological thinking with respect to cartographic praxis.
Rethinking Maps presents a diverse set of approaches to a wide range of new and old map forms and activities, including critical analysis of distributed mapping, new mapping technologies, open-source cartographies, sustainable mapping, new mapping practices, and issues such as representation, race, power, and play. Through theoretically directed case studies the chapters provide an excellent resource for those creating and working with maps and a broad spectrum of advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students in human geography, cartography, GIScience, visual anthropology, media studies, graphic design and computer graphics.
The book has a multi-disciplinary approach to important contemporary mapping practices, with chapters written by leading theorists who have an international reputation for innovative thinking. 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.