that stands out for a number of reasons. First of
all, it is a history of cartographic thought and the
central role of authority and deities in crafting
geography’s Apollonian view of the world.
Second, it exquisitely details the development of
western civilization’s geographic thought over
the millennia. While not explicitly engaging
the development of geographic technologies,
Cosgrove clarifies the myriad connections
between technology and the dominant, state- or
monarch-oriented epistemologies in geography.
This work builds on earlier research on the role
of maps in western civilization, one example
being Norman Thrower’s accessible contribution
Maps and Man: An Examination of Cartography
in Relation to Culture and Civilization(1972).
Finally, authors as varied as Bruno Latour,
Michael Goodchild, and Denis Cosgrove write
about the map as a means of communication.
Latour (1990; see also Latour, 1995) describes
maps as ‘centers of calculation’ that permit colo-
nial knowledge to be not only archived, but made
transportable. In this way, they become a means
for the political body that created the map to cal-
culate and act upon the area represented. Michael
Goodchild (2000) discusses the role of geo-
graphic information in a post-mapping, digital
earth setting where access to information
becomes the banner for new engagements with
place. And Denis Cosgrove and Luciana Martins
(2000) discuss the role of creative engagements
with geographic information as a means to produce
different geographies. They refer to this as
performative mapping.Transportation and communicationThe ability of information technologies to
rapidly increase the speed at which people com-
municate has attracted substantial interest among
economic and cultural geographers (Harvey,
1996). The so-called death of geographic dis-
tance (Cairncross, 1997) has motivated many
geographers to revisit core assumptions in geo-
graphy and study the processes of globalization
and economic change. A key finding of these
studies is that while distance matters less, acces-
sibility to information technology matters even
more. Even cyberspace becomes difficult to
navigate without spatial metaphors.
Accessibility is in and of itself a multifaceted
concept. While for some authors, information is
replacing energy as the driving force of social
organization, other writers are more concerned
about the possible potential information inunda-
tion. Dan Sui (2000) writes about the limits of
the geographic concept of access to capture theimportant dimensions of transportation and
communication in the information age. He
argues that the mechanical metaphor of the web
is ill-suited to assess the actual processes of indi-
viduals, organizations, and societies and calls for
geographers to rely on the biological metaphor of
adaptability that underscores the ability of people
to make sense in a constantly changing world by
adjusting their tactics and strategies. A number of
geographers have engaged these issues to study
the networks that are becoming increasingly
dominant in linking geographically distant places
to coordinated and codependent economic units.
The complex dynamics of the new internet eco-
nomy call for non-linear studies that overcome
the limitations of applying Newtonian gravity
models to transportation and communication in
the information age (Brunn and Leinbach, 1991).
New approaches to studying space–time
dynamics have helped shed some light on indi-
vidual tactics in day-to-day living in the infor-
mation age. Mei-Po Kwan (2000) describes and
analyzes the daily routines of a number of people
who interact in various ways at home and work
with people from all around the world. Instead of
physical distance, the people she describes
engage with many people in information spaces
that are not physically connected. This leads to
complex relationships that require the negotia-
tion of disparate time–place constraints, begin-
ning with time zone differences. This shows well
the mutual influence that technology has on
society and vice versa. Paul Adams’ (1996) work
on community and television also provides use-
ful insights into changing place identities.GISIn Ground Truth(1995), John Pickles articulates
the basis for understanding the uses and conse-
quences of geographic information technologies
in a neo-Marxian framework that trenchantly
analyzes the problems of representation. This
work problematizes the hegemonic politics of
representation and the objectification of biased
observations, going beyond Harley’s critique of
cartography to engage the multifaceted worlds of
geographic information. Following Benjamin’s
work, Pickles extends the theoretization of simu-
lation to consider the many ways in which geo-
graphic information is used. Of particular
concern, and related to the neo-Marxian frame-
work, are the implications of geographic infor-
mation systems. Eric Sheppard (1993; 1995) has
also written on these themes, but with more
stress on the practices of producing geographic
knowledge. Both of these geographers have been538 SPACES OF KNOWLEDGE3029-ch29qxd.qxd 03-10-02 11:08 AM Page 538