This article shows how through history maps have been used for both negative and positive motives. It seems after viewing maps in this light that they are a powerful tool, crossing all disciplines of life. "in the British partition of India in 1947, we can see how the stroke of a pen across a map could determine the lives and deaths of millions of people." (Harley, 263) This quote in particular, brought questions of morality as a Landscape Architect or Urban Planner. How can an outsider to a community possible understand what is right for a community, and to what point do we really consider what stakeholders truly need?
Another fact I found interesting in this article is that the USGS maps exclude information about where nuclear dump waste is located, which made me wonder what else our government is purposely omitting from public maps.
2 comments:
It seems to me that this article and "how to lie with maps" kind of sets you back. As a landscape architecture student you always know that there are a lot of responsibilities in making a client happy, whether thats a home owner or a community. Cheating them has never really crossed my mind. I think it's important for us to make those "moral" decisions and not hide things. To some extent I think it's important to "hide" nuclear dump waste locations, but that is only for safety reasons, although I do believed they should be mapped.
I think that all things should be mapped, but provided to certain licensed groups. We should be aware of where nuclear waste sites are and other hazardous areas so as to plan properly. Access to these maps is now a question of safety as far as foreign affairs but for domestic purposes we need to understand where everything is.
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