16
MaP Design
CRiTiCaL CaRTOgRaPHY
In addition to the research themes of communication and visualization, which per-
tain directly to creating maps,
critical cartography has emerged. Cartographers have
examined bias on maps for over a century, and during World War II and after studies
examined maps as tools for persuasion and propaganda and looked at distortion on
maps; seminal works by Brian Harley in the 1980s took this kind of study in a new
direction. Harley’s “Deconstructing the Map” drew on literary theory and examined
maps as texts. This was originally applied primarily to old maps, but critical cartog-
raphy and the social implications of maps are now a major theme in analyzing mod-
ern maps. Denis Wood’s
The Power of Maps explores this theme. Other themes are
feminist cartography,
maps for empowerment,
emotional maps, and the like.
sOCiaL iMPLiCaTiOns
With the use of GIS in producing maps and their distribution on the Internet, there
has been increasing concern with the ethics of the field and the impact that maps
have on society. John Pickles’s
Ground Truth: Social Implications of GIS is one of
the early studies of this aspect of the field. This is, of course, closely tied to critical
cartography.
sUggestIons foR fURtheR ReAdIng
Andrews, J. H. (2009).
Definitions of the word “map,” 1649–1996. Available at
www.usm.
maine.edu/~maps/essays/andrews.htm
Harley, J. Brian. (2001).
The New Nature of Maps: Essays in the History of Cartography
(Paul Laxton, Ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
MacEachren, Alan M. (2004).
How Maps Work: Representation, Visualization, and Design.
New York: Guilford Press.
Monmonier, Mark. (1996).
How to Lie with Maps (2nd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago
Press.
Pickles, John. (Ed.). (1995).
Ground Truth: The Social Implications of Geographic Informa-
tion Systems. New York: Guilford Press.
Raisz, Erwin. (1948).
General Cartography (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Robinson, Arthur H. (1952).
The Look of Maps: An Examination of Cartographic Design.
Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Robinson, Arthur H., et al. (1995).
Elements of Cartography (6th ed.). New York: Wiley.
Thrower, Norman J. W. (2008).
Maps and Civilization (3rd ed.). Chicago: University of Chi-
cago Press.
Tyner, Judith. (2005). Elements of Cartography: Tracing 50 Years of Academic Cartography.
Cartographic Perspectives,
51, 4–13.
Wood, Denis. (1992).
The Power of Maps. New York: Guilford Press.
A number of GIS texts exist, many of which are aimed at specific applications, such as busi-
ness, natural sciences, or geography. The reader might find the following general texts use-
ful:
introduction 17
Chang, Kang-tsung. (2006).
Introduction to Geographic Information Systems (3rd ed.). New
York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Davis, David E. (2000).
GIS for Everyone (2nd ed.). Redlands, CA: ESRI Press.
Harvey, Francis. (2008).
A Primer of GIS. New York: Guilford Press.
Wade, Tasha, and Sommer, Shelly. (2006).
A to Z GIS: An Illustrated Dictionary of Geo-
graphic Information Systems. Redlands, CA: ESRI Press.
