This chapter introduces the basic idea of »This Is Not an Atlas« and its history. It explains why the publication starts with a love-hate relation to maps and atlases. It also shows how critical cartography can be a starting point for both, criticizing the power of maps as well as actively engaging in mapping and making critical maps. This chapter positions the atlas in relation to activism, art and academia and sketches out the other chapters one by one. It proposes how maps and mapping can be seen and used as tools for action, to tie networks, to create political pressure or to create visibility for marginalized groups. Maps are thus instruments to criticize, educate, show spatial subjectivities and support self-reflection.

As part of kollektiv orangotango+, we co-edited an international collection of activist, academic, and artistic “counter- mappings.” Because counter-mapping is historically closely connected with, and indebted to, anti-colonial struggles and decolonial politics, we hoped to locate our work within the wider debates about decolonial cartography and the decolonizing of the map. At the same time, preparing, producing, and distributing this publication posed a number of questions and problems. We use this short article as an opportunity to reflect on the editing, publication, and dissemination of This Is Not an Atlas, as well as to trace possible ways beyond the book for Not-an-Atlas as an ongoing project.

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