Not Just Navigation: Thinking About the Movements of Maps in the Mobility and Humanities Field

Abstract

At a time characterized by the pervasive presence of–and enthusiasm for–maps in everyday life, interest in the cartographic humanities is growing among map scholars who approach cartography through a cultural lens. A mobility and humanities approach helps us move beyond the factual consideration of maps as mobile navigational devices that are used to move from one location to another. By considering mobility as a dense, elastic concept and adopting a humanistic perspective, I delineate a set of map mobilities emerging from the existing literature. A movement as process section focuses on post-representational, practice-based and historical approaches to mapping practices; a movement as elusiveness section focuses on material, more-than-human, surficial appreciations of cartographic objects; a movement as reimagination section focuses on theoretical, literary and art-based approaches to cartographic concepts. This focus on map mobilities illuminates the multiple theoretical and methodological possibilities of a renewed humanistic perspective in map studies.