Henk van Houtum

New cartographic means of visualizing people and society, beyond the traditional borders of the nation-state A map is a visual story of the world. It feeds our imagination and shapes our view of the world. A standard atlas, however, predominantly tells only one story: that of the nation-state. It depicts a world in which people are uniformly packed into national containers, enclosed by borders, and in which migration is often represented as threatening invasion arrows. Free the Map goes beyond this narrow, state-centric cartography. The book argues for a new cartographic story along the lines of Hermes, the grandson of Atlas and the god of mobility and human connections. To this end, it discusses several visually compelling, alternative cartographic representations of borders and migration. Free the Map ends with a call to action; artists and cartographers offer exciting ready-to-use challenges for educational and public resources.

In the wake of globalization, numerous social scientists are turning to concepts of mobility, fluidity and hybridity to characterize a presumed de-territorialization and de-bordering of contemporary social and economic relations. This book brings together a select group of internationally renowned human geographers to explore the use of these concepts in relation to space, place and territory. In doing so, they (re)situate the subject of borders as active socio-spatial processes from a variety of theoretical perspectives. The contributors link debates on borders to discussions within the wider sphere of cultural studies, notably those addressing themes of migration, post-colonialism, the formation of national/regional identities and radical democratic practice. The chapters focus on those discursive practices that constitute 'bordered' geographical entities in the first instance through differentiated regimes of discourse. The book thus transcends the narrower field of borderlands research by building bridges to other domains of enquiry within political and human geography.

In the wake of globalization, numerous social scientists are turning to concepts of mobility, fluidity and hybridity to characterize a presumed de-territorialization and de-bordering of contemporary social and economic relations. This book brings together a select group of internationally renowned human geographers to explore the use of these concepts in relation to space, place and territory. In doing so, they (re)situate the subject of borders as active socio-spatial processes from a variety of theoretical perspectives. The contributors link debates on borders to discussions within the wider sphere of cultural studies, notably those addressing themes of migration, post-colonialism, the formation of national/regional identities and radical democratic practice. The chapters focus on those discursive practices that constitute 'bordered' geographical entities in the first instance through differentiated regimes of discourse. The book thus transcends the narrower field of borderlands research by building bridges to other domains of enquiry within political and human geography.