Geoinformation, Cartographic

14

Geoinformation, Cartographic (Re)Presentation and the Nation State: A Co-Constitutive Relation and Its Transformation in the Digital Age GEORG GLASZE

Introduction The development of modern cartography as a profession and academic discipline and the rise of the territorial nation state in the European modern era are co-constitutive. While Middle Age cartography presented the world as being built up of unique places, modern cartography since the Renaissance started to present the world as a homogeneous geometric surface divided into distinct but similar territories. Thus, modern cartography paved the way for a presentation of the world as a mosaic of territorial nation states. As many authors have shown, modern cartography was also an essential element for governing the nation state: statistical maps helped to grasp, evaluate and position the national population, cadastral maps enabled to fix and tax properties and topographical maps became an important basis for military operations. Last but not least, the cartographic presentation of the national territory quite often became an icon constituting a 'geo-body' which was important for the creation and reproduction of national identities (see Aronczyk and Budnitsky's chapter). Unsurprisingly, Western nation states became the most important actors in establishing the institutions of modern cartography in the nineteenth century and privileged players in the field of geoinformation and cartographic (re)presentation. 1 The co-constitutive relation of cartography and the nation state became fundamentally transformed since the start of satellite-based remote sensing; the digitisation of geoinformation with geoinformation systems (GIS) in the twentieth century; and with the rise of the so-called geoweb today. The geoweb organises and presents digital geodata most notably via virtual globes, like 'Google Earth', and mapping websites, like OpenStreetMap, Google Maps and Here Maps, and is largely driven by 218

GEOINFORMATION AND THE NATION STATE

219

commercial players and voluntary communities rather than state actors. The geoweb is built on, and fosters, a growing availability of georeferenced data on a global scale. Cartographic (re)presentations of this geoinformation (re)present the whole world in specific but stylistically rather similar images. These presentations largely replace presentations of the world as a mosaic of nation states. The state is no longer the principal actor in presenting its geographies. This process has been welcomed, on the one hand, as a chance for increasing transparency, especially in regions with oppressive regimes and/or in times of crisis. On the other hand, there are voices which question the so-called neutrality of the new global presentations (e.g. criticising a neoliberal commercialisation of geoinformation and cartography which highlights specific information and marginalises other) and voices which fear the loss of privacy. This chapter analyses the transformation of geoinformation and cartogra phic (re)presentation in the digital age and suggests looking not only at the growing universal availability of geoinformation but also at new fragmentations, in order to not only applaud the opening of geoinformation but also to pay regard to new exclusions and marginalisations. Last but not least, this chapter questions the homogeneity of the nation state category relating to this ongoing transformation and shows the different roles of nation states within this transformation.

Modern Cartography and the Rise of the Territorial Nation State The development of modern cartography as a profession and academic discipline and the rise of the territorial nation state in the European modern era are co-constitutive. In Antiquity and the Middle Ages, maps were very rare and scholars of the history of cartography agree that there were no or only very few connections between different traditions of map making. Wood concludes that no 'overarching mapmaking tradition' existed before modernity. 2 Only when Ptolemy's geography was translated from Greek into Latin during the fifteenth century was the concept of a cartographic grid of latitude and longitude rediscovered. The development of new techniques of surveying and measurement (e.g. triangulation and theodolites) as weil as presentation (e.g. the printing press) allowed modern cartography to evolve. The idea that land could be measured and described in precise mathematical terms 3 led to a 'geometrisation' of space which also changed the cartographic presentation of spaces.

220

Figure 14.1

GEORG GLASZE

A rnappa mundi from the thirteenth cent ury: the Ebstorf Map, northern

Germany (Sou rcc: Kolossos, Wikimcdia Commons)

The few and rather elitist mappae mundi and the portolan charts of th e Middle Ages~ had presented the world as being built up of uniqu e places (see e.g. Figure 14.1). 5 In contrast, the much more numerous and quo tidian maps of modern cartography started to present the world as a homogeneous measureable geometric surface divided into distinct but comparable territories - often several years before political practices made these territories a social reality on the ground (see Figure 14.2). 6 Thus, modern cartography paved the way for a presentation of the world as a mosaic of territorial nation states. 7 Several authors have underlined the importance of modern cartographic presentations for naturalising the quasi -corporal existence of the

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nation state. In other words, the cartographic presentation of the nation al territory quite often became an icon constituting a 'geo-body' (see studies on Siam 8 and on Egypt 9 ) which contributed to the creation and reproduction of national identities (see Aronczyk and Budnitsky's chapter). Modem cartography was also an essential element for governing the nation state. The so-called thematic, statistical maps helped to grasp, evaluate and locate the national population based on public statistics on fertility and mortality, school enrolment, diseases, etc. (see e.g. Figure 14.3). 10 Cadastral maps 11 enabled fixing and taxing properties (see Figure 14.4) and topographical maps became an important basis for mi litary operations. 12 Unsurprisingly, the Western nation states became important actor in establishing the institutions of modern cartography in the nineteenth century and privileged players in the field of geoinformation and cartographic (re)presentation. National mapping agencies were often origin ally associated with the military. For example, the Ordnance Survey, the national mapping agency for Great Britain, was established for mi litary purposes in the late eighteenth century. The predecessors of the French mapping agency Institut Geographique National (IGN), the Depot de la Guerre, was founded in 1688, becoming the Service Geographique de ['Armee in 1887 and finally IGN in 1940. Thus, not only did modern cartography fa cilitate the formation of a measurable, homogeneous space divided into distinct but similar territories, modern cartography also became an essential element for governing the territory of the nation state. ConsequentJy, during the nineteenth century, most Western nation states became important actors in establishing the institutions of modern cartography and privileged players in the field of geoinformation and cartographic (re)presentation. The following discusses the extent to which this co-constitutive relation has been challenged in the digital age.

Transformation of Cartography and Geoinformation since the Twentieth Century as a Challenge for the Territorial Nation State Towards a Post-Territorial Imagery: From A erial Photography to Satellite-Based Remote Sensing

The images of the Earth taken from airplanes and satellites constitute a new era in the history of perceiving and presenting th e Earth 's surface. 13

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Although spatial (re)presentations from a bird's eye view have been known since prehistoric times, ca rtography depended on the imagination and mathematical construction of this perspective until the nineteenth century. Only in the case of high buildings or natural elevations were map makers able to build on eye witness accounts. 1~ The development of avi ation and photography during the nineteenth century and of satellites and digital sensors during the twentieth century cha nged these scopic possibilities.

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From the beginning, the Western states, and especially their military, used these new possibilities and promoted their development. For instance, the French army launched its first balloon in 1794, only two years after the Montgolfier brothers started their experiments on driving balloons (see Figure 14.5, with the use of a balloon during the 1795 siege of Mainz) . 15 lt was also in France that the techniques of analog photogra phy were developed at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The first photographs were taken from a balloon in Paris in 1856. 16 During the First World War, the militaries fostered the development of aerial photography from airplanes. Aerial photography was, and still is, used for secret surveillance and spying activities. Thus aerial photography opened new scopic possibilities for technically highly developed nation states and was, and still is, a challenge for the territorial sovereignty of all other states (see Figure 14.6 with a photo taken from a US U-2 spyin g plane in 1962). Besides these military and secret service usages, aerial photography also became relevant in other fields, like archaeology, and the most important data source for topographic maps. The driving forces behind the development of satellite-based remote se nsing during the Cold War were the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union. The United States established NASA, the national space agency, in the 1950s as a civil organisation, not least with the aim of fostering the image of space flights as civil use technology and to secure the national and international acceptance of such flights. At the same time, the United States forged ahead with the project of military remote 17 sensing, behind the 'protective shield' of NASA. The launch of the first satellite in 1957 by the Soviel Un ion marked the beginning of a new era of aerial reconnaissance, 18 as the acceptance of this satellite, or the absence of protest against it, by the United States and other states constituted the basis for wh at became the right of free overflight in outer space (approximately 100km above mean sea level, often labell ed as the Open Sky Doctrine). 19 On ly two years later in 1959 the CIA launched the first spy-satellite ('Keyhole J') which delivered pictures with a ground resolution of 12m. 20 Aerial photos and images built from remote sensor data bear strong 21 effects of evidence, to an even higher degree than traditional maps. Thus aerial photography and remote sensing are often used as proof or evidence (for example, in the debate on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq in 2003 or the question of the deployment of Russian military equipment in eastern Ukrain e in 2014) notwithstanding that these images never speak for themselves but have tobe interpreted; they are not 'mirrors of reality' but selective images produced in specific-techn ical co ntexts.

GEO RG GLASZE

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Sa tellite- based remote sensing changed th e view of th e wo rld . Th e new images of the whole Earth chall enged concepts and practi ces of territorial 22 sovereignty. For a start, the distant observer may get more inform ation 23 th a n the administrations of th e observed territo ries th emselves. Notably, the most important acto rs of satellite industry are loca ted in a few countries mostly from th e Global No rth .2'1 Mo reover, the growing publi c ava ilability of images taken fro m outer space fostered ideas of th e Earth as a limited, but undivided, ho me of mankind. 25 Consequentl y, images of th e blue planet becam e an important symbol fo r transnational, gl o bal environmental movements (see Figure 14.7). ln th e 1990s after th e end of the Cold War, th e gove rnments of th e fo rmer Soviet Union and th e U nited States declass ifi ed huge amounts of sa tellite im age data, and gradually, th e U nited States relaxed restrictions o n co mmercial sa tellite im agery. 26 Commercial remote sensing has becom e a growing m arket with U.S. firm s co mpetin g with, fo r exa mpl e,

228

GEORG GLASZE

Figure 14.7

'J'he 8/ue Marble - Ea rth seen from Apo llo l 7 in 1972

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French and Canadian busi nesses. Whether thi s growing ava ilability of satellite imagery is celebrated as 'global transparency' 27 or feared as global surveillance of everyone by a few is a question of (geo)political position .

Digitisation of Geoinformation within, below and beyond the Nation State: Geographie Information Systems (GIS), Global Positioning Systems and the Geoweb The 1960s saw the digitisation of geoinformation. Systems of spec ifi c software and hardware began to en able the orga nisation and analyses of digital geodata - that is, any data with a reference to a geograp hi c

GEO!NFORMAT!ON AND THE NATION STATE 28

229

location. The roots of these systems are manifold. One inspiration came from the idea of automating the processes of cartography.29 Another source came from projects in landscape architecture and land use studies with 'layered' geographic information. For instance, the Canadian gov­ ernment developed the 'Canadian geographic information system' in the 1960s and early 1970s (the first GIS) which digitally organised Canada's main land use patterns, e.g. agriculture, woodland, recreation, with a coherent system of classification and geographic references allowing spatial analysis (e.g. cakulation of surface areas and identification of specific land uses close to another spatial entity). During the 1980s the first commercia1 GIS software packages were released. GIS was increasingly used for different purposes largely outside of the established organisa­ tions of modern cartography. Marketing agencies started to utilise GIS in order to spot locations, and thus customers, for specific marketing projects; police adrninistrations started to use GIS for organising and analysing crime data; municipalities for urban planning and monitoring land use changes, and so on. Thus the use of GIS fostered the active engagement with geodata (gathering, organisation, analysis, presenta­ tion) within public organisations on national, regional, municipal scales as well as in many different commercial organisations. Nonetheless, an important sponsor of the technological development of GIS and a major user of GIS techniques was, and is, the military, foremost the U.S. military. GIS has replaced the old topographic maps as a basis for military operations: virtual 3D models help to navigate the actions of manned aircraft and automated drones.30 The U.S. military has also been the driving force behind two technical innovations that have had huge impacts on the practices of geoinforma­ tion and cartography in the early twenty-first century: the 'Navstar Global Positioning System' (GPS) and the Internet. GPS became active in l 995. lt enables electronic receivers to determine their location (longi­ tude, latitude) worldwide via the reception of radio signals from satellites. GPS has been developed by the U.S. Department of Defence since the 1970s as a dual use technology for military and civil purposes. Until the year 2000, the system differentiated between a high accuracy for the U.S. military and a public signal with a limited accuracy (-100m). Making the high quality signal available to the public, the U.S. govern­ ment enabled a boom of new civil navigational and other location based services (e.g. car-navigation, geotagging of digital photos and tracking of object or persons).31 Despite the public availability of the GPS signal, the system is still owned by the U.S. government and operated by the

230

GEORG GLASZE

United States Air Force. Due to this fact, other states have established, or are establishing, similar systems (Russia: GLONASS - operational since 1996; the European Union: GALILEO - expected to be operational by 2020; China, India and Japan). 32 Thus, the development and organisation of the GPS shows paradigmatically the opening and commercialisation of geoinformation with some states still organising and controlling this geoinformation to a large extent. The origins of the Internet can be traced back to initiatives of the U.S. government in the 1960s, partly in cooperation with the governments of France and the United Kingdom, to establish a network of computers in order to assure fault-tolerant and robust communication infrastructures. Due to the merging of different networks, especially in the 1980s, and the progressive removal of restrictions for commercial use in the 1990s the network we call Internet today evolved, with its manifold services like email, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) 'phone calls' and the World Wide Web. 33 Several authors differentiate between an early phase of the Internet as Web 1.0 and a later phase since approximately 2004 as Web 2.0. While Web 1.0 was characterised by relatively few content creators and rather static sites, Web 2.0 is characterised by interaction and collaboration and consequently the rise of user generated content. 31 The techniques and practices of GIS, the accessibility of GPS information, the increasing public availability of satellite data and, finally, the ease of use of internet services through desktop and mobile computing are the socio-technical background for the development of the so-called geoweb and thus the recent transformation of cartography and geoinformation in the digital age. The term geoweb has been used to describe the increase and importance of geodata for the Internet as well as the rise of new web based technologies which use, and often produce, geodata (see Svantesson's chapter). The geoweb organises and presents digital geodata most notably via virtual globes, like Google Earth, and mapping websites, like OpenStreetMap, Google Maps and Here Maps. lt creates what some researchers have called digitally augmented geographies. 35 More and more the geoweb shapes what we know about places and how we interact with the world. Importantly, the rise of the geoweb is largely driven by corporate players like Google and 'open' voluntary projects like OpenStreetMap, rather than by state actors. Some of the most important actors are presented in the following. In 2004, two Danish software engineers, who had developed user-friendly software for displaying complex geographic information on a website, offered their start-up to Google Inc, 36

GEOINFORMATION AND THE NATION STATE

231

an internet service corporation which had been established in 1998. On the basis of a successful search engine and the related revenues from targeted advertising, Google has been growing rapidly to one of the most successful corporations of the digital age. Google bought the Sydney based start-up 'Where 2 Technologies' and hired the two Danish brothers. On the basis of the 'Where 2 Technologies' software, the company launched 'Google maps' in 2005 which rapidly became the most used web mapping application worldwide, squeezing competitors (e.g. MapQuest) out of the market. 37 Only a few months after the launch of Google Maps, a Californian computer scientist hacked Google Maps and used the application as a basis for displaying real estate offers on a map (see Figure 14.8). Google recognised that mashing Google's base map with all kinds of other user-generated georeferenced data had an enormous potential for creating new services and bringing more people to use Google. Soon Google created an interface38 which facilitated such a mix and enabled people without any software or cartography training to create 'map mashups'. 39 Google maps itself developed in the following years into a complex web mapping application offering online street maps, panoramic views of streets, real-time traffic conditions and route planning. Also in 2004, Google bought another company with a specific expertise in geospatial technologies: Keyhole Inc, 40 a small software company which had been funded temporarily by the CIA, and had developed a virtual globe on the basis of video game software. A virtual globe presents images of the Earth obtained from satcllite data as weil as acrial photography superimposed onto a virtual three-dimensional globe. 41 Google had already in 2002 started to buy high resolution satellite imagery from commercial remote sensing companies and it is estimated that after the 12 acquisition of Keyhole, Google spent US$ 10 million on satellitc data. Using Keyhole's virtual globe, Google Earth went online in 2005 and made available images of the earth in a photo-realistic style with an unprecedented coverage, quantity and quality. 43 Another important player in the geoweb is a non-commercial initiative. According to the project's wiki, OpenStreetMap is 'a free, editable map of the whole world that is being built by volunteers largely from 11 scratch and relcased with an open-content license.' Notably, the project was started in 2004 by a British computer science student who was frustrated by the restrictive data policy of the public British cartography agency (the Ordnance Survey). 45 Through joining with other volunteers in the context of the open source/open data movement in London and

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positio ns within the socio-technical settings of geoinfo rmation (wh o controls th e socio -techni cal assembl ages of these projects? ); seco nd, th e 59 enduring global differences of socio- technical capabilities (who is being watched and who watches?) ; and, third, the new exclusions (who is able to contribute user generated content and who is not? )60 (see Warfs chapter). Moreover, the idea of a growing universalisation (and homoge nisa tion) of geoinformatio n and ca rtographic (re) presentation captures only one side of th e ongoing transform ation. T he oth er side is covered by new fragmentatio ns and even perso nalisation. Soon after its launch Google has been criticised, for example, by several governments fo r presenting 'wrong bo rderlines'.6 1 Google first reacted in some cases with different do tted lines,6 2 but r apidly changed its policy. Disputed border regions beco m e regul a rly presented in differenti ated ways dependent o n the loca ti o n o f th e viewe r, th at is: his/h er rP address (see Sva ntesson's chapter) . Thus th e Indian -Chinese border looks different in Google m aps wh en accessed from an Indian or Chinese IP address. Aft er th e

GEORG GLASZ E

annexation of Crimea by Russia the peninsula became presented as part of Ukraine to Ukrainian users and as part of Russia to Russian users of Google maps - all other users were left undecided with some dotted lines (see Figure 14.10). The formerly universal Google 'worldview' thus becomes re-fragmented along the lines of the (favoured) national perspective. Further, with the launch of a new version of Google Maps in 2013 the whole idea of a 'universal' map seems to be discarded. Depending on the search requests, places visited and the history of searches and visits, Google personalises the content displayed in Google maps. 63 The reason behind this strategy lies in the ultimate objective of Google: targeted advertising. And with the growing number of maps based on user generated content - often, but not always, using OpenStreetMap data there also is a tendency towards more and more special purpose maps (e.g. 'baby places' -maps, maps for mountainbiking, riding, public trans port, etc.) leaving the idea of a universal map behind. The other two conceptualisations show the tension between an 'opening' and 'democratisation' of geoinformation and the new exclusions. The rise of geoweb applications, especially the possibilities of map -mashups, 64 as weil as completely user generated mapping projects like OSM, 65 have been welcomed as 'opening' and 'democratisation' of cartography. 66 New actors are getting access to geoinformation and new possibilities are created for putting so far untold stories on the map. Google itself describes 'its mission . .. to organise the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful'. 67 Regularly, the company promotes its activities as being in service of a 'global free flow of information' that could only be a beneficial prospect for everyone; thus, it has been argued, 'betraying a conflation of its own interest with the global good'. 68 Comparing state-based maps (e.g. the topographic maps pro duced by the British Ordnance Survey, the French Institut Geograpique National or the respective organisations in the German federal states) with Google Maps, it becomes clear that both types of maps display specific information and dismiss other information. However, the ques tion of what is presented on the map and what is dismissed is answered quite differently. While state based topographic maps tend to present stable objects with a traditional symbolic value, like historic buildings and churches, the content of Google maps is driven by the logic of an 'attention economy'. And consequently it is no surprise that the Google Maps App is marketed with the slogan 'Find the best spots in town and the information you need to get there.'

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Google had already in 2004 started a kind of 'yellow pages' database for local business information and invited business owners to add information to the Google database of places (called Google Plus Loca l since 2012 with the interactive Google My Business application). According to a marketing study in 2015, nine out of ten Google users regularly search for local business information. 69 Therefore the database of economic places 'constitutes a crucial economic asset as much as mapping and profiling the locations from which users are searching.' 70 While state based topographic maps certainly (online and offline alike) exclude many places (e.g. the case of 'missing mosques' in topographic maps in Germany7 1), Google maps also fo llows a very specific logic of inclusion and exclusion largely driven by economic interests of users and the company itself. Even the idea of an opening and democratisation of geoinformation through open and voluntary projects like OpenStreetMap has been ques tioned in recent years. Several authors have shown that the communities of Web 2.0 cartography tend to be dominated by rather young, well educated and technically savvy men in Europe and North America.72 lt seems that these social structures of users produce specific sociogeographic patterns of classification as wei l as of inclusion and exclus ion. A case study on OSM in Jerusalem shows that the data density is significantly higher in quarters mostly populated by secular Jews than in Palestinian and Jewish orthodox quarters (see Figure 14.11).7 3 In the digital age, the role of code and software within the processes of geoinformation and cartography becomes a relevant factor in processes of inclusion and exclusion. As, for example, Google does not make public the functioning of its search algorithms, the question why this or that place is listed in a local search or presented on Google maps (or not) remains in the black box of the company. But even for open geodata projects like OSM it is only a small number of contributors who have the technical skills, the know-how, the motivation and the time for coding and editing the software. However, software heavily channels the devel opment of user generated open-data projects.7 /4 Geoinformation and cartographic (re)presentations shape what we know about the world and steer our daily actions - with the rise of the geoweb more than ever. Digital and material geographies melt into augmented geographies. While during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the Western nation state controlled the production and dissemination of geoinformation within its boundary, to a !arge extent this no longer holds true. However, as shown, it would be na'ive and one-sided to

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describe the transformation of geoinformation exclusively in terms of 'opening' and 'universalisation'. lt seems that much more research is necessary to understand the new inclusions and exclusions within the processes of assembling and using geoinformation in the digital age.

Conclusion and Outlook: A Socio-Technical Geography of Geoinformation in the Digital Age The rise of the geoweb with its new commercial and voluntary players in the field of geoinformation and cartographic (re)presentations has been welcomed for enabling new transparencies, for example, preventing oppressive regimes from hiding their misdeeds. Furthermore, this shift has been hailed as a diversification and democratisation of cartography and geoinformation as it opens this field to new actors and new voices enabling a growing diversity of geographic information. And last but not least this shift has been described as an universalisation of geoinformation and cartography - overcoming the old meta-geography of the world fragmented into a mosaic of territorial nation states. However, this transformation is certainly more complex. So, the new transparencies directly raise the question of power and privacy: who, what and where becomes transparent for whom? The idea of an opening and democratisation of geoinformation and cartography risks overlooking the fact that there are many questions of unequal access, of exclusions and of hegemonic fixations also in commercial and even in voluntary user generated geographic information. These inequalities and the tendencies to personalise and re-fragmentise content and presentation of geoinformation in the geoweb, also challenge the idea of an ongoing universalisation of geoinformation. Last but not least, the idea of a dethronement of the state has to be nuanced at least. Even though the state no longer is the by far most important creator and controller of geoinformation (and this holds true even for powerful western states), to a !arge extent, the commercial and voluntary services of the geoweb depend on social and technical infrastructures provided by states. The relation between states and geoinformation has its proper geography - also in the digital age. 75 As described earlier in this chapter, the privileged role of the state as provider and controller of geoinformation and cartographic (re)presentations during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was limited, to a ]arge extent, to the Western nation states. In the digital age, the socio-technical abilities of nation states to affect the transformations of geoinformation and to adapt to these transformations vary considerably as weil.