Making the map. Between Emerging Cartographies and Epistemic Diversity in Latin America

Abstract

Critical and collaborative cartographic practices in Latin America have been performed by social movements, ethnic groups, activists and researchers for more than sixty years. A good part of the knowledge production on this topic has been directed towards cartography and very little towards interrogating its epistemological nature. Based on the author’s doctoral research, the article discusses the state of the art on this topic and reflects upon how cartographic practices in Latin America can offer insights into the tensions and possibilities of cartographic and epistemic diversity, establishing a dialogue with approaches from the post-representational cartographies. It concludes with the proposal to expand the epistemic understanding of cartography, starting from thinking about the map as an object, identifying the conditions and processes of its emergence, but also the social and political life that the object acquires within the assemblage where people, materialities, social, political and cultural processes also partake.