Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Classifying, Analysing and Experiencing Maps
A tentative humanistic approach
Janos Szegö
MAPMAKER R&D
Karlskrona. Sweden
janos.szego@mapmakser.se
Abstract
This paper is based on the assumption that the contents of all maps are
emanating from three different sources:
1/ visual observations
2/ abstract thinking and
3/ human imagination.
Each individual map has a specific combination of these basic elements.
This combination is visualised with help of a triangle diagram. Based on
the proportions between these three components we can classify all maps
and analyse them in different ways. In this paper the analyses go in two
different directions:
•
An analytical one, i.e.
-
the classification itself,
-
meta mapping, i.e. a registration of the coverage of the maps in
space and time within in each category of maps
-
“information analyses' i.e. understanding of the map´s contents
and intellectual structures and their connections with the related
fields of research.
•
The second main direction is analysing
-
people's the experiencing of maps and - in relation/connection to
this -
-
people's experiencing the human environment (mental mapping).
The specific relation between the three components is then the key element
which connects all studies concerning one and the same group of maps.
One crucial point that is necessary to emphasize from the beginning:
