Paper short abstract:

This paper seeks to show the ways in which cartographic artifacts have been used in Latin America to go beyond spatial representations and towards eliciting competing localities and grounded truths which enunciate and draw conflict and insurrection to the centre of attention.

Paper long abstract:

New developments within ICT's are, suggests Foucault, able to invert previous metaphors of the panopticon, with these new information technologies allowing for the challenging of elites. While this notion is subject to continuous debate, one such field where this inversion has been stark has been within the production of maps. Maps and spatial representations produced by local people have a long history, yet in the last ten years the field of cartography has moved in directions unimaginable just 20 years ago. Cartography, through increased access to digital platforms, has been slipping from the control of the powerful bourgeoisie bringing about the creation of 'neogeography' and the democratisation of participation. This in turn has created the potential for an 'insurrection of knowledges' in which GIS platforms allow for the expression of a variety of knowledges creating a more level playing field for comparing consensus and division. In turn allowing for a wider exploration of the cultural and political conditions that direct human understandings of the environment. These 'counter-maps' which express local knowledges in cartographic form can be a powerful tool in promoting the rights of communities. This paper seeks to show the ways in which they have been used in Latin America to go beyond spatial representations and towards eliciting competing localities and grounded truths which enunciate and draw conflict to the centre of attention.