Political Geographies of Everyday Life

Since the beginning of humankind people have felt the need to communicate with others and
with their environment. Since the cave paintings that first attempted to represent the
environment and geography to the photographs taken from space and the maps produced
today, there is a continuing, complicated and evolving process. The way in which we gain
knowledge about our place in the world, about geography or how we recognise our countries
and cities, the different ways in which we internalise and use this information are thanks to
maps, but also differ according to the maps that we come across. In this way, maps hold much
more significance in our lives than we think, especially in terms of our place in the world and
our political understanding of geography. In this thesis I will be questioning the whole
production process of maps, how they are used, who produced them and who uses them,
different cartographic methods and how these effect our knowledge and understanding to
create some awareness in this area. I will first define the concept of maps and the elements
used in them, and then expand on cartographic elements that play an important social role, the
influences on and motives of the people producing them and by doing so I will give a more
socio-political analysis.