The Political Mapping of Cyberspace

by Jeremy W. Crampton

As inherently spatial beings, our sense of space in cyberspace challenges all that is familiar in terms of our ability to define, organize, govern, and map social places. In The Political Mapping of Cyberspace, Jeremy Crampton shows that cyberspace is not the virtual reality we think it to be, but instead a rich geography of political practices and power relations.

Using concepts and methods derived from the work of Michel Foucault, Crampton outlines a new mapping of cyberspace to help define the role of space in virtual worlds and to provide constructive ways in which humans can exist in another spatial dimension. He delineates the critical role maps play in constructing the medium as an object of knowledge and demonstrates that by processes of mapping we come to understand cyberspace. Maps, he argues, shape political thinking about cyberspace, and he deploys in-depth case studies of crime mapping, security maintenance, and geo-surveillance to show how we map ourselves onto cyberspace, inexorably, and indelibly.

Offering a powerful reinterpretation of technology and contemporary life, this innovative book will be an essential touchstone for the study of cartography and cyberspace in the twenty-first century.

Genres: Nonfiction

214 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the particulars are dated. A few of the examples in the book draw completely irrelevant conclusions in light of the contemporary political and technical situation. And the author doesn't always do everything he can to bring the theory back to actual practices. However, I enjoyed this book. The exploration of Foucault in light of Heidegger's being-in-the-world was exceptional. I think the most valuable thing I will be taking away from the book is actually completely unrelated to cyberspace per se. Crampton's general formulation of problematization as the occasion for moving from the "ontic" to the"ontological" is helpful for folks who think critically in any domain.

This book, like so many others of its ilk, loses so many points for an artificially inflated style. Sometimes the jargon is warranted. Often it is not. The unnecessary theory-speak discredits the passages where it is necessary.

He provides some great frameworks for thinking about authentication, confession, parrhesia and power dynamics. And the central reiteration of cartography as a political (in the corporate and political sense of the word) practice was powerful.

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lots of potential leads for references and resources but sometimes the book just made me want to scream.