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Maps are powerful political tools shaping a nation’s past, present and future – counter maps allow everyday people to reclaim the narrative
Counter maps expose redlining, gerrymandering and other hidden systems that shape access, with examples from Ferguson, Shell Oil and nationwide redistricting fights.
- Maps serve as strategic tools of world-building used by politicians and companies to stake claims and shape narratives. Geographer Mark Monmonier describes how mapmakers employ selective editing to advance specific goals or disseminate a brand.
- Historically, The Home Ownership Loan Corporation used redlining maps to exclude African Americans from property markets, while Shell Oil maps from the 1950s advertised the brand while omitting competing transit systems.
- In the Radical Atlas of Ferguson, USA, Patty Heyda remaps the American city to reveal how regional planning creates inequality, exposing 'behind the scenes' factors including how Fortune 500 companies receive subsidies while local infrastructure remains underfunded.
- Counter maps reveal physical barriers to democracy by combining racial demographics with polling locations, exposing why voter turnout remains low in African American wards of Ferguson where no polling places exist.
- By making systems of power visible, the practice of remapping allows the public to assert new forms of collective memory and helps policymakers identify biases in data that shape urban spaces and stories.
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19 Articles
InsideNoVA.com+17 Reposted by 17 other sources
Maps are powerful political tools shaping a nation’s past, present and future – counter maps allow everyday people to reclaim the narrative
From who gets to vote to how people travel and where taxpayer dollars are funneled, politicians and urban planners wield maps to control public imagination.
The Conversation: Maps are powerful political tools shaping a nation’s past, present and future – counter maps allow everyday people to reclaim the narrative
The Conversation: Maps are powerful political tools shaping a nation’s past, present and future – counter maps allow everyday people to reclaim the narrative. “As an urban and architectural designer, mapper and spatial politics researcher, I’ve seen how maps shape urban spaces and the stories told about them. I’ve also seen how maps have the power to question these stories, opening up other meanings a place can have that are shared by everyday r…
Coverage Details
Total News Sources19
Leaning Left1Leaning Right6Center6Last UpdatedBias Distribution46% Center, 46% Right
Bias Distribution
- 46% of the sources are Center, 46% of the sources lean Right
46% Right
C 46%
R 46%
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