Call for Papers
IGC 2012 August 26-30, Cologne : New Cartographies of Risks and Conflicts.
Session organizers: Georg Glasze and Boris Michel (University of
Erlangen-Nuremberg)
The emergence of web 2.0 considerably changes the production and use of
maps. The “neo-cartographies” of the “geoweb” challenge not just the role of
cartographers and geographers as the authorized producers of maps and
cartographic knowledge, but produce a wide range of new mapping practices.
This becomes most apparent in the context of web based crisis and risk
cartographies where collaborative and highly dynamic mapping projects open
up new ways of recording and managing crises and assessing risk. Recent
examples include crisis mapping of the earthquakes in Haiti and Japan,
mapping conflicts in North Africa and the Middle East, as well as the
deployment of web mapping in risk assessment and environmental planning.
While these new practices are frequently celebrated as a new democratic and
instant way of responding to social, political and ecological crises in very
different contexts, there are a number of questions that call for a critical
examination. This session invites papers related to the (online) mapping of
conflicts and crises. We are looking for practical examples and reflective
research, including critical cartography, that addresses some of the
following questions:
- How are conflicts played out within crisis mappings. What new
power relations are produced, what voices silenced?
- How are existing power relations and hegemonies contested,
sustained or enhanced by these new cartographic practices?
- What is the role of technology in these processes and how can we
conceptualize it?
- How do practices of defining and constructing risks, crises and
conflicts change?
- How is knowledge produced by these new discourses and practices
and how does it differ from the previous power-knowledge of cartographic
reason?
- Despite the overwhelming positive response to most of these
projects by media and academia there is very little work done on their
actual impact. Does web mapping in these contexts make a difference?
In addition to registering your abstract for the conference on the IGC (
<http://www.igc2012.org/> www.igc2012.org) website, please submit a copy to
Boris Michel ([log in to unmask]) not later than December
15th 2011.
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Dr. Boris Michel
Institut für Geographie
Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
Kochstr. 4/4
91054 Erlangen
Tel: 09131/85 23302
Fax:09131/ 85 22013
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
[log in to unmask]
<http://www.geographie.uni-erlangen.de/pers/bmichel>
www.geographie.uni-erlangen.de/pers/bmichel
