Maps soc soc_workshop2010final-web
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Maps and S o c ia l S c ie n c e atthe BL K im b e r ly K o w a l Sarah Evans
description
This presentation was used for the Maps workshop sessions at the British Library Social Science training days for postgraduates at the BL on the 11th and 19th October 2010. The presentation was presented and produced by Kimberly Kowal and Sarah Evans.
Transcript of Maps soc soc_workshop2010final-web
M a p s a n d S o c ia l S c ie n c e a t t h eB L
K im b e r ly K o w a l S a r a h E v a n s
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O u r c o lle c t io n s
150 million items 625 km shelves 12 km p.a. growth
Most known languages Ancient to modern Conferences
Newspapers Grey lit Patents
Paintings MagazinesOfficial Publications
Wax cylinders Sound Talks
IOR BIPC Photographs
Oral history e-publications Fanzines
Manuscripts Websites IGOs
Maps and atlases Weapons ModelsResearch reports Books
Music scores Bread books Exhibitions
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S o c ia l S c ie n t is t s a n d M a p s
Resurgence of interest by social scientists in the use of maps
Examples of recent projects include:
Social and Spatial Inequalities programme at the University of Sheffield:
http://sasi.group.shef.ac.uk/index.html
http://www.worldmapper.org/
UCL London Profiler
http://www.londonprofiler.org/
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F in d in g o u t a b o u t m a p s a t t h e B L
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C o lle c t io n s o n lin e
Proposed plans for Regents Park, 1813 London: A life in Maps
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M a p s t h r o u g h a s o c ia l le n s
Maps as produced by humans, within their own view of the world which may be saturated with agendas (both conscious and unconscious)…
We might therefore helpfully think of maps as social and cultural texts to be deconstructed, read and interpreted.
Maps as texts are at once and already an interpretation.
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…Th in g s t o t h in k a b o u t
• What was the political context at the time of the period being represented? How about at the time of publication?
•Who published the maps? For what purpose and to which audience?
•What has been represented thematically? How is displacement and dispersion described?
•What meta-narratives are embedded in the text?
•Objectivity/subjectivity…
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U s in g k n o w n m e t h o d o lo g ie s
Maps as text…
Q u a n t it a t iv e c o n t e n t a n a ly s is
What can the use of particular images, signs and symbols tell us about the producers of maps? About what is/was important to them? About their relationship to geopolitical space?
D is c o u r s e a n a ly s is
What can we understand by the discourses embedded within the text? What can maps tell us about how hierarchies embedded in discourse have changed over time? (We might think about this when looking at some of Kimberly’s examples)
N a r r a t iv e m e t h o d
Maps tell stories of individuals, of nations, of identity…What are the cultural and meta-narratives contained within? Whose story is being told? What kind of story is it? Where is it leading?
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…C o n t a c t in g u s
Email us:
Kimberly Kowal – Curator of Digital Maps
Sarah Evans – Engagement Development Officer, Social Science
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Ramsey Abbey Higden World Map, ca 1350. 35.5 x 48.3 cm. British Library: Royal MS 14.C.IX ff. 1v-2
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Roy Military Survey of Scotland, 1747-1755 (detail). British Library Maps K.Top.48.2
5.la, etc.
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“A description of the towne of Mannados or New Amsterdam, as it was in September, 1661," being a colored plan of New York (known as the `Duke’s Map’ or `Duke’s Plan’)…” British Library Maps K.Top.121.35.
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New England: Observed and described by Captayn John Smith. London : [H. Lownes, for R. Clerke], 1616. In: The Discovery of New Brittaine. By Edward Bland British Library C.33.c.21.
14[A Mapp of Virgina, discovered to ye hills and in it's Latt. from 35 deg: & 1/2 neer Florida to 41 deg: bounds of new England. John Goddard sculp. Domina Virginia Farrer collegit ... 1651]. In A Description of New England: or the observations, and discoveries, of Captain John Smith in the North of America, in the year 1614… British Library C.33.c.12
