Jess Bier
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780262036153
- eISBN:
- 9780262339957
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262036153.001.0001
- Subject:
- Earth Sciences and Geography, Cartography
Mapping Israel, Mapping Palestine is an analysis of the ways that segregated landscapes have shaped digital cartography in Jerusalem and the West Bank since 1967. Extending work on how technology is ...
More
Mapping Israel, Mapping Palestine is an analysis of the ways that segregated landscapes have shaped digital cartography in Jerusalem and the West Bank since 1967. Extending work on how technology is socially constructed, it investigates the ways that knowledge is geographically produced. Technoscientific practices are situated in landscapes that are at once both social and material, and this influences the content of digital technology in sometimes unpredictable ways. Therefore it is necessary to reflexively engage with materiality and space in order to enable more diverse forms of knowledge. Maps are an iconic symbol of modernity, and they have been central to debates over the future of Palestine and Israel. This has only intensified as Geographic Information Science (GIS) mapmaking has led to increasingly minute forms of surveillance and control. Intended to display objective facts, maps inspire extensive discussions. However, the framing of these discussions cannot be divorced from the participants’ asymmetrical mobilities within the very terrains that they seek to portray. Therefore it is essential to investigate how Palestinian, Israeli, and international cartographers are unevenly affected by the segregated landscapes which their technologies have helped to create. Mapping Israel, Mapping Palestine addresses these important issues by bringing together the disciplines of critical geography, postcolonial theory, and science and technology studies (STS). It presents an analysis of the maps and mapmaking practices that result when diverse cartographers chart the same landscapes that so condition their movement. It investigates the myriad ways that the segregated landscapes of the Israeli occupation shape knowledge about the occupation.Less
Mapping Israel, Mapping Palestine is an analysis of the ways that segregated landscapes have shaped digital cartography in Jerusalem and the West Bank since 1967. Extending work on how technology is socially constructed, it investigates the ways that knowledge is geographically produced. Technoscientific practices are situated in landscapes that are at once both social and material, and this influences the content of digital technology in sometimes unpredictable ways. Therefore it is necessary to reflexively engage with materiality and space in order to enable more diverse forms of knowledge. Maps are an iconic symbol of modernity, and they have been central to debates over the future of Palestine and Israel. This has only intensified as Geographic Information Science (GIS) mapmaking has led to increasingly minute forms of surveillance and control. Intended to display objective facts, maps inspire extensive discussions. However, the framing of these discussions cannot be divorced from the participants’ asymmetrical mobilities within the very terrains that they seek to portray. Therefore it is essential to investigate how Palestinian, Israeli, and international cartographers are unevenly affected by the segregated landscapes which their technologies have helped to create. Mapping Israel, Mapping Palestine addresses these important issues by bringing together the disciplines of critical geography, postcolonial theory, and science and technology studies (STS). It presents an analysis of the maps and mapmaking practices that result when diverse cartographers chart the same landscapes that so condition their movement. It investigates the myriad ways that the segregated landscapes of the Israeli occupation shape knowledge about the occupation.
Jess Bier
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780262036153
- eISBN:
- 9780262339957
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262036153.003.0005
- Subject:
- Earth Sciences and Geography, Cartography
Chapter 5, “Validating Segregated Observers”, explores the intricate ways that the Israeli occupation shapes empirical observations. Through a critique of feminist standpoint theory and Donna ...
More
Chapter 5, “Validating Segregated Observers”, explores the intricate ways that the Israeli occupation shapes empirical observations. Through a critique of feminist standpoint theory and Donna Haraway’s work on situated knowledge, it shows how the most well meaning maps can be drastically different depending on who makes them. After 1967 Israeli settlers have increasingly moved to the West Bank, establishing diffuse but numerous settlements that dominate the landscape, engendering forms of segregation that are both rigid and complex. As a result, Palestinians see different parts of the landscape, and under tougher restrictions, than do Israelis, and vice versa. For example, cartographers in Palestinian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are able to collect map data only within Palestinian areas, and must view the Israeli settlements from without. This produces a dichotomy between, and enforces a drastically unequal separation of, Palestinians and Israelis. It also buttresses imbalances of power in international technoscience, influencing even the most apparently objective, empirical knowledge. Chapter 5 explores the (by no means straightforward) implications of this segregation in detail, while also introducing the notion of refractivity, or material and spatial reflexivity. Throughout, it seeks to understand how cartographers in organizations who use the same tools to map the same landscapes can produce different results.Less
Chapter 5, “Validating Segregated Observers”, explores the intricate ways that the Israeli occupation shapes empirical observations. Through a critique of feminist standpoint theory and Donna Haraway’s work on situated knowledge, it shows how the most well meaning maps can be drastically different depending on who makes them. After 1967 Israeli settlers have increasingly moved to the West Bank, establishing diffuse but numerous settlements that dominate the landscape, engendering forms of segregation that are both rigid and complex. As a result, Palestinians see different parts of the landscape, and under tougher restrictions, than do Israelis, and vice versa. For example, cartographers in Palestinian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are able to collect map data only within Palestinian areas, and must view the Israeli settlements from without. This produces a dichotomy between, and enforces a drastically unequal separation of, Palestinians and Israelis. It also buttresses imbalances of power in international technoscience, influencing even the most apparently objective, empirical knowledge. Chapter 5 explores the (by no means straightforward) implications of this segregation in detail, while also introducing the notion of refractivity, or material and spatial reflexivity. Throughout, it seeks to understand how cartographers in organizations who use the same tools to map the same landscapes can produce different results.
