ABSTRACT

What role does visualisation—such as images and maps—play in environmental and landscape governance? As pointed out by our late colleague Eirin Hongslo, surprisingly little research has been conducted on what ‘work’ images and maps do in these fields. This special issue draws on her insights, and the wider scholarship on critical cartography and political ecology, to explore how images and maps act as technologies of governance through creating and rationalising space. Through empirical studies ranging from forest governance in the Congo, petroleum exploration in the Arctic, regional planning for coastal zones and mountain areas in Norway, and pastoralist rangelands in southern Africa, the contributors to this special issue bring to light the various ways in which maps and images are visual manifestations of particular assumptions about socio-ecological causal relations, shaping notions and practices of authority and access. We conclude through emphasising the potential for further inquiry.

摘要

可视化（例如图像和地图）在环境和景观管理中扮演什么角色？正如我们已故同事Eirin Hongslo指出的那样，令人惊讶的是，很少有研究针对这些领域中的“工作”图像和地图进行研究。本期专刊利用她的见解以及对关键制图学和政治生态学的更广泛研究，来探索图像和地图如何通过创建和合理化空间来充当治理技术。通过实证研究，包括刚果的森林治理，北极的石油勘探，挪威沿海地区和山区的区域规划以及南部非洲的牧民牧场，该特刊的撰稿人揭示了各种方式，其中地图和图像是有关社会生态因果关系的特殊假设，塑造权威和获取途径的观念和实践的视觉表现。最后，我们着重强调进一步调查的潜力。