Cartographic Representations of Coastal Land Loss in Louisiana: An Investigation Based on Deviant Cartographies

Abstract

The claim of topographic cartography to represent things of relevance and at the same time of certain permanent material persistence is challenged by the processes of coastal land loss in Louisiana. This example is used to discuss central points of critical cartography, such as a positivist worldview of cartography, its state-boundedness, and the construction of relevance. These aspects are taken (meta-functionally) as the occasion for reflection and further development of cartography in the sense of post-critical cartography sensitive to hybridities, complexities and contingencies. In doing so, we draw on reflections on deviant cartographies that foreground the consideration of whether changes in cartography have proven professionally or socially useful, suitable, and usable, without resorting to the notion of a comprehensive paradigm shift. The need is particularly evident in the case of land loss in Louisiana, where there is a constantly changing physical space that hardly allows for the construction of a clear dividing line between land and water areas, as is also evident from the analysis of historical and current maps that reflect topographies.