Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
urban environment, which can be easily depicted, are represented. Likewise, Lus-
sault (1994) has commented on the limitations of 'traditional' cartography and
the static nature of plans, which cannot represent the interrelations between the
different parts of the territory.
The style of spatial images is key to understanding spatial planning traditions
as they 'are forms and crystallizations of the
thought
of . . . planners as they go
about their work' (Söderström, 1996: 252). Cartographic representations in
planning 'process' reality according to a system of procedures such as selection,
schematisation and synthesis. These procedures are what Söderström (1996)
called the 'internal efficacy' of representation, which enable the translation from
one complex reality to its simplified configuration. Distinguished from this is what
he called the 'external efficacy' of representation, which is related to the persua-
sive power of representations, thus the 'capacity for certain representations to
win over public opinion' (Söderström, 1996: 252), and to co-ordinate action.
Since planning is often confined to a group of professionals, this external effi-
cacy and a certain code of representation can often be enough to persuade non-
professionals of the legitimacy of the planning policies or intended actions. The
external efficacy of any visualisation is therefore intrinsically linked with its
internal efficacy, especially for the communication of planning policies outside
the circle of professionals (Söderström, 1996). This implies that it is impossible
to separate the 'technical' procedures for the preparation of cartographic
representations from the social and political uses to which those representations
are put in the outside world.
For the analysis of cartographic representations in (urban) planning
processes, Söderström (2000) has proposed a model that he calls the 'visual
circuit'. This is made up of four interrelated fields: the
context
of elaboration, the
process of
production
, the context of
use
of the visualisation, and the '
materialisa-
tion
' or implementation (see Figure 2.3).
The context of elaboration is influenced by the social and historical conditions
in which planning takes place, and which give meaning to visualisations. This relates
for instance to the dominant conception of space, and the resulting visualisations
(cf. Chapter 3). The second field in Söderström's model, the process of production,
concerns the study of practices of how visualisations are produced, of what is
selected and how it is encoded. The traditional two-dimensional cartographic space
is defined by selection, scale, and the schematisation and symbolisation of the phys-
ical elements of which it is composed. New visualisation techniques, which combine
different forms of representation (such as static, animated, iconic, conventional or
3D), however, might influence the perception of space differently. The third field for
analysis, the 'use' in Söderström's model, relates to the process of decoding and,
consequently, to the audience and the social use to which the cartographic
