Exploring feminist theory in data and cartography
Location is Personal is a monthly newsletter by Mapbox, from the desks of Lo Bénichou and Amy Lee Walton. We’re exploring how the human experience shapes the spatial experience. In honor of Women’s History Month, we’re digging into the concept of feminist cartography and how its principles can promote change and inclusion.
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We’ve spent Women’s History Month feeling inspired by the impact women have had in the fields of data, cartography, urban planning, and the spaces around us. For over a century, women have used data and maps to champion inclusive and equitable spaces in both the physical and digital world. Women like Yeshimabeit Milner, the founder of Data 4 Black Lives, Florence Kelley, the activist who mapped demographics of Chicago to push for change, feminist author Rebecca Solnit, whose unconventional atlases explore cities through the eyes of its inhabitants, and Annita Lucchesi, a cartographer mapping missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in the United States and Canada. These women — and many more — explore data and location by breaking away from the traditional methods which often fail to reflect our realities.
Traditionally, cartography and data analysis combines the scientific method, technical processes, and craft to model our spatial reality within shapes, borders, and intersections. This boils our virtual footprints down into living, crowd-sourced collections of points, lines, and polygons, but discards our biographies and experiences, which contribute significantly to the spaces we carve out and inhabit.
Enter feminist theory. Feminist theory in cartography, data analysis, and visualizations tackles issues like power dynamics, inequality, intersectionality, identities, and ethics. It does not mean that every issue needs to be women or gender-centric. Meghan Kelly, a cartographer and Ph.D. student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, explains that anything, from the map-making process to the context of the map itself, can be feminist. Much in line with the concept of this newsletter, feminist cartography argues that location isn’t neutral and cartographers and data scientists aren’t disembodied objective creators. In other words, the maps we create can shape reality as much as they can represent it.
“Maps are active; they actively construct knowledge, they exercise power and they can be a powerful means of promoting social change.” — Jeremy Crampton and John Krygier in An Introduction to Critical Cartography
This may be the first time you’ve heard of feminist cartography, but you’ve likely seen its application before. For example, back when Lo was working at YR Media (Formerly Youth Radio), their students decided they wanted to map what gentrification in West Oakland felt like to them. This was their first Mapbox project and they called it West Side Stories. Or when, during a teaching residency, Amy Lee led Maryland Institute College of Art students through an interactive mapping project defined by their individual perceptions and experiences.
There are so many other examples we could dig into. Migration Trailfrom Alison Killing visualizes the struggles and hopes of migrants across the globe. MIT Media Lab’s Atlas of Inequality is a map that details micro-level of segregation. Mimi Onuoha built a collection of missing datasets of the blank spots that exist in spaces that are otherwise data-saturated. All of these projects push the boundaries of traditional cartography or data gathering.
Why does it matter? Neutrality and objectivity are hot topics. While there is value in the scientific method, as much as there is value in the journalistic process of fact-checking, it is critical to examine the context in which these principles were established. We do not live in a vacuum. The locations we live in, our identities, our relationships, our social status are all embedded in norms that are beyond the reach of objectivity. These projects exist to challenge the generalizations and oversimplifications that divide, discriminate, and dismiss. Location and data are not neutral and neither is the world we live in.
Tag someone (or yourself!) you think challenges the status quo through feminist cartography or data visualization and share with #locationispersonal.
— Lo Bénichou + Amy Lee Walton
What we’re checking out
- These downloadable posters of Women in STEM, illustrated by four female illustrators from around the globe
- The hidden voices of women in cartography and other spaces
- “The Woman Who Transformed How We Teach Geography”, Smithsonian Magazine
- Catherine D’Ignazio and Lauren Klein’s draft of Data Feminism
- A short story about gender in public spaces, The New Yorker
- The review of Nonstop Metropolis: An Atlas of Maps Reclaiming New York’s Untold Stories and Unseen Populations, Brain Pickings
- “Empowered Women, Empower Women” (and we agree!), from Dropbox
- The truth about the Gender Gap in Tech (p.s. it’s not just a pipeline problem), BuzzFeed News
Who we’re following
- Laura Bliss, writer at The Atlantic’s CityLab, author of a newsletter all about maps
- April King, Head of Website Security at Mozilla
- Mimi Onuoha, new media artist, researcher, creator of Missing Datasets
- Latoya Peterson, storyteller and technologist (Lo saw her NICAR talk this year and wow!)
- Shazna Nessa, Global Head of Visuals/Deputy Managing Editor at the Wall Street Journal (also at Nicar, also wow!
- Meghan Kelly, feminist cartographer, Ph.D. student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Madison Draper, support engineer at Mapbox and map-maker
- Alison Killing, TED Fellow, WIRED Innovation Fellow
- Rosemary Wardley, Cartographer at National Geographic, #WomenInCartography all month
- Molly Roy, Lead Cartographer at Nonstop Metropolis
What we’re building
- Key cartographic features for Japanese maps
- Location data for Sprint’s 5G Curiosity IoT network
- Step-by-step guide to build the ultimate micro-mobility app
- Shifting auto maps to the cloud
- Two new features for Mapbox GL JS: fill-extrusion querying with ray picking and `clusterProperties`
Developer Spotlight:
Catherine D’Ignazzio
Catherine D’Ignazio is a scholar, artist/designer and software developer who focuses on data literacy, feminist technology, andcivic engagement. She is writing a book about feminist approaches to data with Lauren Klein and working with the Public Lab to explore the possibilities for journalistic storytelling with DIY environmental sensors.
Women Devs at Mapbox
Allie Rowan is a Directions engineer and also one of our Gender Minority ERG leads. In her free time, Allie enjoys reading fantasy and sci-fi, baking bread, drinking overpriced craft brews, and going on walks with her dog, Ziggy Stardust.
Bersabel Tadesse is our Director of Product for Maps. She runs a team responsible for the various products under Mapbox’s Maps division. Outside of Mapbox, Bersabel’s passions are traveling, music, her Yorkshire Terrier/Poodle mix Louis, and Manchester United.
Arya Popescu
Arya Popescu is part of the Security Team and works across the organization to ensure the security of Mapbox-ers. She is also one of our Uncharted (LGBTQAAI) ERG leads. Outside of Mapbox, Arya has a passion for sound and game design and is always working on some project or other.
Mapbox Events
- GovSummit hosted by Mapbox | March 26
- Ruby by the Bay | March 29–31
- Bay Area Maptime Meetup @ Mapbox SF | April 16
- Customer Success Manager
- Android Engineer, Mobile Telemetry
- Email Marketing Manager
- Senior Map Designer
- Web Developer
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Location is Personal: Issue 3, March 2019 was originally published in Points of interest on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.