When Maps Become the World

Map making and, ultimately, map thinking is ubiquitous across literature, cosmology, mathematics, psychology, and genetics. We partition, summarize, organize, and clarify our world via spatialized representations. Our maps and, more generally, our representations seduce and persuade; they build and destroy. They are the ultimate record of empires and of our evolving comprehension of our world.

This book is about the promises and perils of map thinking. Maps are purpose-driven abstractions, discarding detail to highlight only particular features of a territory. By preserving certain features at the expense of others, they can be used to reinforce a privileged position.

When Maps Become the World shows us how the scientific theories, models, and concepts we use to intervene in the world function as maps, and explores the consequences of this, both good and bad. We increasingly understand the world around us in terms of models, to the extent that we often take the models for reality. Winther explains how in time, our historical representations in science, in cartography, and in our stories about ourselves replace individual memories and become dominant social narratives--they become reality, and they can remake the world.

Maps are powerful tools. They seduce and persuade; they build and destroy. They are the ultimate record of empires and our evolving comprehension of our spatialized world. They can partition, summarize, organize, and clarify--but they can also deceive.

When Maps Become the World is about the promises and perils of maps. Whether in literature, cosmology, mathematics, psychology, or genetics, maps are purpose-driven abstractions, discarding detail to highlight only particular features of a territory. By preserving certain features of the modeled world at the expense of distorting others, they can be used to reinforce a privileged position.

In this comprehensive study of map-making, Rasmus Gr nfeldt Winther shows us how the scientific theories, models, and concepts we use to intervene in the world function as maps, while also exploring the consequences of this, both good and bad. We increasingly understand the world around us in terms of models, to the extent that we often take the models for reality. Winther explains how in time, our historical representations replace individual memories and become dominant social narratives--they become reality, and they can remake the world.