Representations, Diagrams and Visualizations of Space and Place - Advances in Cartography and GIScience - page 74

This paper addresses the use of the growing number of maps with self-
generated content and visualizations that are now readily available via
Web 2.0. It considers whether this form of cartographic artefact provides a
tool for discovering the real nature of place, rather than just a 'pretty pic-
ture' of part of the Earth. The paper begins by discussing what is meant by
place and space and then provides examples that illustrate the differences
between representing certain places with maps and diagrams and just visu-
alising spaces through maps with self-generated content.
1- Introduction
We have traditionally used maps to provide information about space,
depicting three, four and n-dimensional data. Rules for their production
and use have evolved and producers and users have mastered these rules to
develop and publish products and to exploit information resources. We
have fashioned a design, development, fabrication and consumption pro-
cess (and associated procedures) that have enabled essential artifacts to be
made available and for them to be used effectively and efficiently. How-
ever, with access to global resources and use of transparent systems,
whereby for example users can disassociate the source of information from
the actual display of that information, the consideration that these artifacts
may be required to provide information not just about 'SPACE' needs to
be made.
2- Space and place
French Sociologist Michel de Certeau proposed the spatial practices of
everyday life in a chapter of his book, The Practice of Everyday Life
(1984). In the chapter, entitled 'Spatial Stories', de Certeau distinguished
between space and place. de Certeau ( op cit., 1984, p. 117) saw PLACE as
“the order (of whatever kind) in accord with which the elements are dis-
tributed in relationships of coexistence”. Here elements are defined by
their relative positions to each other, making a place “an instantaneous
configuration of positions” ( ibid. ), implying “an indication of stability”
( ibid. ). Therefore every PLACE so defined, has a unique geographical
characteristic.