1,721,142 research outputs found
Towards a theory of interpretation: cartographical semiosis
No full textOver the last 10 years a new theory in the interpretation of cartography has takes shape. In her overview of the various interpretative approaches that have variously contributed to the present critical approach, the author identifies semiotics as one of the trails principally worth pursuing. A semiotic approach, namely a theory of cartographic interpretation, effectively shifts the emphasis from maps intended as mediation of territory to maps takes as agents, whereby actions to be carried out on territory are determined. This perspective may be defined as cartographic hermeneutics, since it undermines the very semiotic notion of map analysis: the study of maps relies not on autonomous semiosis but on a second level (or meta-semiotic) semiosis that is deeply rooted in and strictly related to first-level, territorial semiosis. In particular, the author focuses on two concepts: self-reference and iconization. The former, which constitutes the core of cartographic communication, is used to indicate the map’s ability to be accepted as such (by its mere existence) and to communicate independently of the intentions of the cartographer. The latter is the communicative process that results in circumstances and contingencies being communicated as truths (thanks to the self-referential nature of the map). Hence, as a model, the map does not represent territory but replaces it. Iconization means that direct knowledge of the world is sidelined, with the greater relevance being given to the knowledge generated by the map itself
Cartographic Semiosis: Reality as Representation
No full textOver the last ten years, a new theory in the interpretation of cartography
has taken shape. In her overview of the various interpretative approaches
that have contributed to the present critical approach, the author notably
identifies semiotics. A semiotic approach, and the theory of cartographic
semiosis in particular, effectively shifts the emphasis from maps as a
mediation of territory to maps as agents, whereupon the actions to be
carried out in territory are determined. This perspective may be defined as cartographic hermeneutics, given that it undermines the very semiotic notion of map analysis
notion of map analysis
Introduzione: corografia vs topografia
No full textIl contributo traccia il quadro teorico in cui si collocano i saggi presenti nel volume, rimarcando il rinnovato ruolo della cartografia espresso dal mapping. In particolare, l’analisi si sofferma sul superamento della metrica topografica, mediante l’adozione di una nuova metrica, quella corografica, all’interno della semiosi cartografica. Tale metrica è rivolta al recupero di uno spazio topologico, allontanandosi da quello prospettato dalla geometria euclidea. Accenna alle riflessioni che si stanno facendo in ambito informatico rispetto all’adozione di nuove geometrie, come quella frattale, in grado di registrare i fenomeni complessi come l’urbanità nell’era della mondializzazione. Tale frontiera interpretativa – seguendo il paradigma della scienza data-driven – offre nuove piste alla ricerca geografica, per sfruttare appieno sia le potenzialità delle tecnologie cartografiche GIS e WebGIS, così come quelle algoritmiche proprie dei Big Data georeferenziati, che solo attraverso il mapping registrano la dimensione spazio-temporale della quotidianità dei cittadini.The contribution traces the theoretical framework of the essays contained in the volume, pointing out the renewed role of cartography expressed by mapping. In particular, the analysis focuses on the overcoming of topographic metrics, through the adoption of a new metric, the chorographic one, within cartographic semiosis. This metric is aimed at the recovery of a topological space, moving away from the one proposed by Euclidean geometry. The essay mentions the reflections made in the IT field with respect to the adoption of new geometries, such as the fractal one, capable of recording complex phenomena such as urbanity in the era of globalization. This interpretative approach – following the data-driven science paradigm – offers new chances to geographical research, to fully exploit both the potential of GIS and WebGIS mapping technologies, as well as algorithms for managing georeferenced Big Data, which only through the mapping can record the space-time dimension of citizens’ everyday life
Recensione di: R. Maffei, La formazione di un geografo. Arcangelo Ghisleri e il rinnovamento degli studi geografici in Italia (1878-1898), Pisa, Edizioni ETS, 2007, pp. 280, bibl.
No full textRappresentare la spazialità della mondializzazione
No full textEconomists are well aware of the fact that to function capitalism requires a barrier-free, conflict-free geographical space, time flowing without a pause between night and day, no holidays, no temporary closures and no seasonal festivities. Since the collapse of the USSR and since the People’s Republic of China opened up to a free economy, the capitalist system has expanded to include the whole world and over the last three decades has developed temporally and spatially to permit the flux of capital, shortening distances thanks to the presence of infrastructures for the transport of people and goods, and to a certain extent eliminating them completely with the introduction of information technology. Yet, the geography of the global economic system, or rather the effects of the expansion of capitalism in the world, describes results that are quite different from the designs of capitalism, showing instead an amplification of territorial structures that impede the fluidity of the global capitalist system. The territorial foundations of a global economy can be described more appropriately with the expression “mondialization” (Jacques Lévy, 2008, Italian edition, 2010), which comprises all the territorial, particularly urban, conformations that have already been established or are in the process of being established, for better or worse, as a result of the processes of economic globalisation. Mondialization is supported by the global nature of society, or rather it is based on rising dimensions as a whole and on the networked dimension of relations between individuals in a mondialized society. The most relevant of these dimensions relates concepts to action, the images the social actors have in mind and the object that they mould in a perspective of rising mobility. Creating new forms of representing that network and new tools of communication is the core of the problem that many researchers, territorial analysts, analysts of communication and of the complex symbolic systems are examining in order to understand the innovative scope of mondialization. It is clear that mondialization is a difficult but fascinating field of study. In fact its specific characteristics make it a unique historical process so that it is impossible to compare it to other fields of study. Nevertheless, it is by considering its uniqueness that it becomes possible to examine its progress and to highlight the multifaceted meaning which it has come to assume over time both from an economic and financial point of view and in social and cultural aspects, like governance and migration
Cartographic technologies for territorial governance
No full textThe present study draws attention to cartographic technologies as the privileged research field where geography is called upon to meet the challenges of globalization. As a matter of fact, researchers in the field have long matured the conviction that cartographic representation is tightly linked to territory and therefore a rendering of contemporary spatiality necessarily entails skills both in territorial analysis and in cartographic semiology. In modern times, topographic metrics, inherited from Euclidean cartography, had severed the link between geography and cartography. Maps were merely intended to render the referential or quantitative features of territory. Nowadays, instead, having eluded controls of the institutional kind, maps are intended both by territorial analysts and by the various agents involved in emerging online scenarios, as representations capable of conveying the social meaning of territory. Notably, new cartographic technologies prove it necessary to consider two perspectives: the epistemic one, whereby we look at the role maps play nowadays in imparting territorial information; and the experimental one, meant to produce new maps that might meet the needs of a new definition of spatiality and thereby reclaim the issues of social groups who demand direct participation in the decision making linked to the challenge of globalization. The present study outlines theoretical issues touching upon the latter perspective, with methodological examples taken from a number of products assembled at the Diathesis Cartographic Laboratory of Bergamo University
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