GIS and Geographic Governance

Reconstructing the Choropleth Map

Bibliographic Data

ID14701290
AuthorsJeremy Crampton (Georgia State University), Jeremy W Crampton (0000-0001-5702-0430, Georgia State University, corresponding author)
Year2004
Volume39
Issue1
Pages41-53
Publication date2004-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCartographica The International Journal for Geographic Information and Geovisualization (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0317-7173 • E-ISSN: 1911-9925
PublisherUniversity of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.3138/h066-3346-r941-6382
OpenAlexW1980943237
LanguageEN
Citations received32
References cited14

This paper takes up the challenge of "reconstructing gis" by examining gis and governmental rationality. As an aspect of government, mapping is a vital source of geographic knowledge that informs political decision-making. Of particular importance to geographic governance and management are population distributions such as health, wealth, education, density, or criminality. Yet how these distributions have been mapped has shifted and been contested historically. Whereas in the early nineteenth century populations merely filled in pre-existing political areas, by the early twentieth century populations were understood as themselves defining areas and boundaries. Today, gis has returned to the earlier unproblematic politics of space. I explain these shifts by identifying similar shifts between the choropleth and the dasymetric map. Although commonly used, the choropleth is inadequate and misleading. I discuss the possible reasons for these shifts by re-emphasizing mapping as an aspect of geographic governance

Cartography · Corporate governance · Economic geography · Economics · Geographic information system · Geography · Government (linguistics · Governmentality · Management · Political science · Politics · Population · Rationality · Regional science · Sociology · Census and Population Estimation · Computer Science · Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences · Demography · HIV, Drug Use, Sexual Risk · Law