Globalisation and Representation of Space (Analyse how the production of a spatial
representation reinforce certain identities or narratives) - To what extent does the Western world impact the production of a spatial representation in maps?
Key words
Historical Materialism
Spatial Justice
Place
Urbanism
Community
Mediated
Media
People
Gaston Bachelard
Walter Benjamin
Global
Pierre Duhem
Event
Urban Living
Hong Kong lack of space
Marketing/Manipulation
Contingent
Representation
Containment
The problem of representing landscape can be seen as a
quandary of containment. - Casey, 7
We are limited to discrete objects (dimensions, frame)
Paintings
Diagram
Panorama
Maps
Nations
I propose the following definition of the
nation: it is an imagined political
community—and imagined as both
inherently limited and sovereign. - Anderson 5-6
Institutions
Museum
Census
Maps
Map
Mercator projection
Widely used and referred to
Exaggerates the size of the Earth around the poles and shrinks it around the equator
problematic given that the first world maps based on the Mercator projection were produced by European colonialists.
The task of, as it were, ‘filling in’ the boxes was to be accomplished by explorers, surveyors and military forces. … They were on the march to put space under the same surveillance which the census-makers were trying to impose on persons. Triangulation by triangulation, war by war, treaty by treaty, the alignment of map and power proceeded - Anderson 173
Power
Western countries colonising developing countries in order to legitimise their spread, especially in Southeast Asia
Tentative Argument
Reinforces power, fulfilling a hierarchical system
Nations
Institutions
Social Status
Hence the appearance, late in the nineteenth century especially of ‘historical maps,’ designed to demonstrate, in the new cartographic discourse, the antiquity of specific, tightly bound territorial units. Through chronologically arranged sequences of such maps, a sort of a political-biographical narrative of the realm came into being, sometimes with vast historical depth.
Colonial vs post colonial
Dutch East Indies
Wars
Korean War (38th parallel)
Philippines
India
Colours
US voting system; democrats vs republicans
Map-as-logo
the logo-map penetrated deep into the popular imagination, forming a powerful emblem for the anticolonial nationalism being born - Anderson 175
No more information allows it to be mass produced
Concepts
Real vs Represented
constructed by people
Surveillance
Historical
Contemporary
Physical
Mental Construct
Social
Colonisation
power is controlled by those of a higher status