From ‘The Map’ to an Internalized Concept. Developing a Method of Deconstruction as Practice for Reflexive Cartography

Abstract

John Brian Harley’s canonical paper ‘Deconstructing the map’ (1989) has been one of the main bases of Critical Cartography, Critical GIScience, and reflexive approaches to working with maps and geomedia in geography education. However, reducing deconstruction mainly to reading the map’s margins is only part of the potential that deconstruction offers. In this paper, following Derrida’s approach of deconstruction more closely, we build on the discussion of Harley’s paper and try to develop a deconstructive practice for reflexive cartography in educational contexts.