The cartographic dimensions of humanitarianism

Mapping refugee spaces in post-earthquake Haiti

Bibliographic Data

ID5056901
AuthorsApril Shemak (Sam Houston State University, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume26
Issue3
Pages251-275
Publication date2014-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCultural Dynamics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0921-3740 • E-ISSN: 1461-7048
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0921374014527920
OpenAlexW2029444232
LanguageEN
References cited25

This article examines the post-earthquake politics of space via the literal and cultural mapping of internally displaced persons in Haiti to consider the cartographic dimensions of humanitarian biopower. I begin by analyzing OpenStreetMap Haiti, an online collaborative cartographic project, which mapped Haiti's roads and refugee camps after the earthquake by using high-resolution satellite imagery, global positioning system technologies, and aerial photographs-much of which is derived from US military data-in order to facilitate "humanitarian" efforts on the ground. I contend that the visual text produced by OpenStreetMap Haiti, which functions as a map to locate and situate refugees, represents a particular form of humanitarian biopower. In the second half of this article, I analyze a 2012 work of comics journalism titled Tents beyond Tents, which offers a critique of humanitarian "aid" from the perspective of Haitians who occupy the internally displaced persons camps created after the earthquake. I consider how the comic functions as a cartographic project, or cartoon mapping, through depictions of the spaces of the refugee camps in and around Port-au-Prince

Archaeology · Biopower · Cartography · Comics · Displaced person · Geography · Humanitarian aid · Internally displaced person · Political science · Politics · Refugee · Sociology · Comics and Graphic Narratives · Global Security and Public Health · Law

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