Dear All,



**Apologies for cross-posting**



We warmly invite abstracts for the following session at the Royal Geographical Society’s Annual International Conference to be held in London from Tuesday 27 to Friday 30 August 2024. The session is sponsored by the Development Geographies Research Group.



(Counter)-Mapping for Disaster Risk Reduction: Challenging Inequalities in Knowledge Systems in Development Contexts

Session Organisers: Katherine Arrell (Northumbria University), Katie Oven (Northumbria University), Jonathan Rigg (Bristol University), Amy Johnson (Georgia College & State University) and Nick Rosser (Durham University)

Discussants: Mukta Tamang (Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu) and JC Gaillard (The University of Auckland)



Mapping in its many forms underpins research, policy and practice within the field of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR). Maps provide an entry point for identifying and interpreting risk (and resilience), a platform for communicating and understanding information (U.S. Geological Survey, 2017; Rusk et al., 2022), and a tool for planning for and responding to disasters (Biswas, 2024; UNOSAT, 2024). They are often seen as a common language amongst multiple different actors engaged in DRR and response, a language that smoothly translates messages across geographical and cultural contexts. However, in the same way that disaster studies, and DRR policy and practice more broadly, are rooted in Western thinking (Gaillard, 2021), so too are maps and many of the conventions that underpin what and how they are produced. While there are examples of maps being used to bring multiple forms of knowledge together (Membele et al., 2022), to add to or even contest official data (Williams and Dunn, 2003), questions remain regarding just how inclusive mapping processes and mapped outputs are. With new global initiatives underpinned by maps and mapped outputs underway, including the UN’s Early Warning For All initiative, innovations in data collection and mapping such as crowd-sourcing, the widespread use of OpenStreetMap, and new AI mapping technologies, combined with an unprecedented supply of, and increased access to, high resolution data describing the Earth’s surface and its inhabitants, it is timely to revisit key questions about what, how and why we map in DRR.



This session will explore the conceptual, ethical and methodological challenges in mapping within a DRR context in development spaces. Specifically, we invite abstracts that reflect upon the (mis)use of maps within DRR, and which speak to the following:

•       The need, purpose and motivations for making maps in DRR

•       Tensions between cartographic norms and accessibility

•       Experiences of making maps useful, usable and used

•       The politics, ethics and complexities of mapping potentially emotive information

•       Moving beyond what’s there: mapping the intangible

•       Alternative representations of space and place for DRR

We particularly welcome submissions from researchers and practitioners in the Global South working within the field of DRR, and presentations in alternative formats.



In terms of logistics, we are hoping to hold this as a hybrid in-person/online session, opening the session to paper presenters who cannot meet with us in-person at the RGS. Hybrid formats in the conference are limited and contingent upon approval by the conference organisers after submission, but we will do our best to secure this format for our session.



Please submit abstracts (250 words maximum) to [log in to unmask] and Katie Oven [log in to unmask] by 17:00 (GMT) on Monday 26th February. Please indicate in your submission if you hope to attend in person or if you would prefer to present remotely. We will inform you of the outcome by Wednesday 28th February.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact either Katherine or Katie.



Many thanks,



Katherine and Katie



Dr Katherine Arrell

Research Fellow

Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences



T: +44 (0)191 227 4931

E: [log in to unmask]

Room B222, Ellison Building, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8ST, United Kingdom

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