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Reading Maps Closely
Creator: Parisa Setayesh | Level: Beginner | Category: Literacy: Visual and Critical Literacy Why this mattersVisual literacy is not just about looking at a map and recognizing locations. It is about interpreting visual information, noticing how attention is guided, and understanding how a map produces meaning. Your GCDI post Beyond the Map: Visual Literacy &…
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Participatory and Community Mapping
Creator: Parisa Setayesh | Level: Beginner | Category: Foundations: Maps and Meaning Why this matters Participatory and community mapping remind us that useful spatial knowledge does not belong only to experts or institutions. Community mapping guides emphasize that local knowledge can be documented through a range of methods—from paper maps with markers to digital GIS—and…
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Maps, Power, and Knowledge
Creator: PS | Level: Beginner | Category: Foundations: Maps and Meaning Why this matters Maps often appear objective because they use measurement, coordinates, and graphic conventions associated with expertise. But critical cartography argues that maps are also shaped by institutions, categories, authority, and power. A foundational introduction to mapping should therefore include not only how…
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How Maps Make Meaning
Creator: PS | Level: Beginner | Category: Foundations: Maps and Meaning Why this matters Maps do not simply display facts. They are designed for specific audiences, media, and purposes, and those design choices shape how information is interpreted. Learning this is the bridge between “looking at maps” and actually understanding what maps are saying. Key…
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What Counts as a Map?
Creator: PS | Level: Beginner | Category: Foundations: Maps and Meaning Why this matters Many beginners assume that a map has to look like a road map, atlas page, or GIS interface. But cartography introduces maps more broadly as selective, symbolic representations of space, and that broader understanding makes mapping feel much more approachable. It…
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Why Maps Matter
Creator: PS | Level: Beginner | Category: Foundations: Maps and Meaning Why this matters Maps are not only tools for navigation. They are ways of organizing spatial knowledge, asking questions about place, and communicating patterns that might otherwise remain hard to see. Across the humanities, social sciences, public research, and community work, mapping has become…
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New Post!
How Maps Speak: A Mapping Commons Hackathon Build public-facing mapping tutorials, examples, and workflows using NYC Open Data. How Maps Speak is a collaborative virtual hackathon focused on building Mapping Commons, an open educational resource for public mapping. Rather than centering on a single technical product, this event brings together participants from different disciplines to…
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