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How Occupied Landscapes Shape Scientific Knowledge

May 22, 2018. 3:00-5:00pm

During this event Jess Bier will present her book Mapping Israel, Mapping Palestine (MIT Press, 2017). The book challenges the view that digital maps are universal and value-free. Jess examines the ways that maps are made in Palestine and Israel to show how social and political landscapes shape the practice of science and technology. The book draws on ethnographic fieldwork, archival research, and critical data analysis.

For all those interested in the politics of cartography, and Science and Technology Studies (STS) approaches in urban studies, geography, and the Middle East.

Dr. Polly Pallister-Wilkins (University of Amsterdam) will act as discussant. This book launch is organized by Marguerite van den Berg in cooperation with the Centre for Urban Studies, the University of Amsterdam.

All are welcome. Registration is not required. If you have any concerns about building or event accessibility related e.g. to disability, please email [log in to unmask] as soon as possible so that we can make sure that any necessary resources are in place.

Digital practices in social and political landscapes: Why two researchers can look at the same feature and see different things.

Maps are widely believed to be objective, and data-rich computer-made maps are iconic examples of digital knowledge. It is often claimed that digital maps, and rational boundaries, can solve political conflict. But in Mapping Israel, Mapping Palestine, Jess Bier challenges the view that digital maps are universal and value-free. She examines the ways that maps are made in Palestine and Israel to show how social and political landscapes shape the practice of science and technology.

How can two scientific cartographers look at the same geographic feature and see fundamentally different things? In part, Bier argues, because knowledge about the Israeli military occupation is shaped by the occupation itself. Ongoing injustices -- including checkpoints, roadblocks, and summary arrests -- mean that Palestinian and Israeli cartographers have different experiences of the landscape. Palestinian forms of empirical knowledge, including maps, continue to be discounted. Bier examines three representative cases of population, governance, and urban maps. She analyzes Israeli population maps from 1967 to 1995, when Palestinian areas were left blank; Palestinian state maps of the late 1990s and early 2000s, which were influenced by Israeli raids on Palestinian offices and the legacy of British colonial maps; and urban maps after the Second Intifada, which show how segregated observers produce dramatically different maps of the same area. The geographic production of knowledge, including what and who are considered scientifically legitimate, can change across space and time. Bier argues that greater attention to these changes, and to related issues of power, will open up more heterogeneous ways of engaging with the world.

Access Options

Mapping Israel, Mapping Palestine is available for purchase in ebook or hardback from most sellers. See "buying options" at top right:

https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/mapping-israel-mapping-palestine

Public Culture article, of particular relevance to the book:

https://jessbier.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/public-culture-2017-bier-53-78.pdf

Jess’s other publications are freely available online at:

https://jessbier.org/publications/

*NB: If you would like to look at the book but would have difficulty purchasing it for various reasons (precarious employment, etc.), please email directly for options:

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Event Location

University of Amsterdam

Commonroom Anthropology (REC B5.12)

Apologies for cross-posting.

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