-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        CFP - 'Rethinking Maps' sessions at RGS-IBG 2006 Conference
Date:   Tue, 3 Jan 2006 22:57:26 +0000 (GMT)
From:   martin dodge <[log in to unmask]>
To:     [log in to unmask]




Call for papers - RGS/IBG Annual Conference
London, 30 August - 1 September 2006


Session title: Rethinking maps

Session organisers: Martin Dodge and Chris Perkins (University of
Manchester), Rob Kitchin (NUI Maynooth, Ireland)


Context
Over the past 20 years there has been a sustained engagement in
rethinking the ontological basis and epistemology of cartography. This
has led to such conceptual frameworks as: maps as social constructions,
post-representational cartography, non-confessional cartography,
non-progressive histories of cartography, de-ontologized cartography,
denaturalized cartography, critical cartography, counter-mappings and
performative mapping. These sessions will bring together scholars to
explore these new ways of thinking about maps and what they mean for
working cartographers, mapping research and map scholars. We particularly
welcome papers on the following five broad themes:

1. Map as practice:
What insights are gained on the nature of cartography when maps are
studied processionally rather than representationally? We welcome papers
that examine contemporary map creation as a performance of space and the
affective power flowing from map use in diverse contexts.

2.  Map hacking:
What are the implications of the emergence of map 'mashups' through the
hybrid use of existing cartographic knowledges and material artefacts in
novel ways. We are interested in papers that explore the practices of
cartographic 'remixability' (Manovich 2005).

3. Open-source mappings:
Can groups of citizen cartographers really make workable maps from the
'bottom-up'? We seek papers that investigate the potentialities and
problematics of new organisational, technological, economic and cultural
structures for producing copyright-free cartographic knowledges, along
with the collaborative mapmaking practices that are flowering online.

4. Autonomous cartographies:
To what degree is autonomous mapping, with implied dispersed, decentred,
and democratised authorship, really possible? We invite contributions
which explore the scope of alternative, subversive and underground
mapmaking that challenges established power relations and jump-scales to
effect political change. We are also interested in work looking at the
prospects of oppositional counter-mapping emerging from rewiring/rewriting
of existing cartographic practices, instilling them with new progressive
political 'depth'.

5. New routes in the study of maps:
How can new types of cartography be studied empirically? What theoretical
approaches, aimed at reconstructing the conditions under which mapping is
brought into being, offer helpful routes into a new generation of map
studies. Some possible approaches could include: science & technology
studies (STS), ethnomethodology, non-progressive genealogy, postcolonial
theory, affectual theories, and variants of Actor-Network theory, along
with the ideas from the likes of Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, Tim
Ingold, and Michel de Certeau.


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Proposed papers in the form of a 200 word abstract (using the RGS-IBG
abstract pro-forma available from http://www.rgs.org/ac2006 ) should be
submitted to Martin Dodge ([log in to unmask]) by 20th January 2006.
We welcome alternative presentations formats, please feel contact any of
the session organisers with questions.

It is also our ambition to pursue a book from the sessions.


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Martin Dodge
Geography,
School of Environment and Development,
The University of Manchester,
Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK