"Map-Making for Palestinian State-Making", Arab World Geographer (original) (raw)

Maps have long been used as tools to dispossess the colonized, establish sovereign control over territories, and engineer states. Cartographic representations not only serve as national logos that encourage commitment to a nation-state but also inform scientific knowledge and practices that are crucial for state building. This article draws on the sociology of knowledge, Science Studies, critical cartography, and critical geopolitics to provide a contextual understanding of the various social, institutional, and political factors that inform Palestinian map-making practices. In-depth interviewing, ethnography, and collaborative action research provide the methodological tools to do so. This conceptual and empirical framework helps to critique the traditional invisibility of the Palestinian perspective, and its rendering through the eyes of Western colonizers, administrators, and experts, by addressing issues that are relevant to Palestinian stakeholders in the midst of their state-and nation-building project.