Reflecting on J.B. Harley's Influence and What He Missed in “Deconstructing the Map”

Abstract

We never met Brian Harley, nor heard him speak, but his ideas deeply influenced our thinking, writing, and teaching about maps and mapping. His argument that maps function as social texts has a powerful force: after all, maps clearly do much more than simply store spatial data and communicate information. Harley's writing, along with work by Denis Wood, John Pickles, and Matthew Edney, opened up many routes for map studies beyond the technical, the cognitive, and applied functionalism. This body of scholarship, which we now recognize as ''critical cartography,'' was important as it helped to integrate the map as a significant object of inquiry back into the intellectual mainstream of the social sciences and humanities.

How are maps used in research? An exploratory review of PhD dissertations

“…According to Kraak et al (2018), the role of map users is also changing due to the popularization of internet services, crowdsourcing, open science and cloud mapping: the role of the cartographer has changed from that of a mapmaker to a maker of map design tools and the role of map users has changed to that of co-creators of online maps. At the same time, there has been a rapid and significant in power over the production of maps, with a major decline in the role of authoritarian state bureaucracies and the rise of a few unaccountable and profit-driven corporations (Dodge & Perkins, 2015). Today, anyone can make a map.…”

Farewell to Maps: Reformulating Critical Cartography in the Digital Age

“…When we know how important the technical details of a device -the size of the pixel in an image, for example -are for understanding its political effects -such as the invisibilization of certain resources in an image -we understand why this alliance is essential. As Martin Dodge and Chris Perkins point out, with the increasing place of algorithms in the production and circulation of representations of space, it is undoubtedly much trickier to deconstruct current cartographic devices, where diverse spheres of actors and multiple technologies are intertwined, than the devices of yesteryear where cartographic power was held by a few rare experts (Dodge and Perkins 2015).…”

Re-Reading Spatial Citizenship and Re-Thinking Harley’s Deconstructing the Map

“…In Cartographica's special issue in 2015 marking the 25 th anniversary of Deconstructing the map, Rose-Redwood (2015) honours the essay's canonical status that has become evident in its broad reception among social sciences, while Krygier (2015) presents us with autobiographical notes of Harley's influence. By contrast, Harley has been criticized for his limited reading of both Derrida and Foucault (Belyea 1992), and for blank spaces within his argumentation (Dodge & Perkins 2015). Nevertheless, his paper has proven to be a blooming source of inspiration for researchers such as Harris (2015), who highlights intersections of Harley's work with feminist, queer and post-colonial theories.…”