The map is a central element of our visual culture. It has also been a vital representation technology in many scholarly disciplines for hundreds of years, as well as a practical tool for navigation and a means for the government of territory. But, as the editor of this new four-volume collection from Routledge explains, the rhetorical power and technical complexity of how maps work are relatively underappreciated and not well analysed across the social sciences and beyond. Now, to enable researchers and advanced students to make better sense of a vast corpus of scholarship, Mapping brings together all the important literature in a comprehensive and coherently edited compendium. The carefully selected texts demonstrate how cartography works as a powerful representational form; they also explore how different mapping practices have been conceptualized.

The four volumes are structured by theme—including ‘definitions and paradigms’; ‘design and communication’; ‘technologies and techniques’; and ‘people and politics’—and the gathered materials include major works from leading cartographers, as well as classic and cutting-edge pieces from scholars and researchers in cognate subject areas.