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Article: Stories About Place: Community mapping is a powerful tool for environmental education
- Article from:
- Our Schools, Our Selves
- Article date:
- October 1, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Fall 2009. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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When students and educators look to maps for information, they often do not think about who has made the maps and for what purposes. They tend to see maps as truthful, accurate and scientific representations of a landscape. But maps are typically made by governments, industries or businesses with their own agendas and worldviews. Maps are tied up with power and have been used as weapons, just like guns and warships. The purpose of colonial maps, for example, was to catalogue the land, people and resources through comprehensive mapping in order to dominate them (Harley and Zandvliet, 1992). Traditional forms of education may perpetuate and justify oppression through placing a higher value on ...