Counter-Mapping Anti-War Protests - 2007
I began this project in 2007 to investigate the use of new media technologies to document and promote anti-war protests, as part of a growing interest in engaging academically and personally with social movements. I presented preliminary results at the 2009 AAA meetings as an invited participant in one of two sessions organized by the Association of Senior Anthropologists. This experience has motivated me to begin engaging with anthropological literautre on social movements as outlined in my 2009 contribution to the Society for the Anthropology of Work (SAW) section in Anthropology News.
You check out some examples of the images produced by this project here
Here's the title and abstract for this paper
Title: Abstract: |
Pirate Philosophy, Counter-Mapping, and Post-Racial Protest “Pirate philosophy” is an emerging movement expanding on traditional open-source practices by posting data online in a format inviting modification. This philosophy intersects directly with “counter-mapping,” a counter-hegemonic practice inviting individuals to tell their stories using maps. In turn, such movements could facilitate an unrealized, modern form of civil disobedience drawing on emerging information technologies. During the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle, mobile phones were used to direct spontaneous actions at various sties and times, resulting in violent forms of protest seen by many as regrettable and misguided. Since then, few protests have utilized emerging information technologies to generate on-the- ground, real-time action. This paper draws on my decade-long involvement with US-based protests, an anthropological study of anti-war protests begun in 2007, and experience leading counter-mapping courses. I utilize geographic information systems (GIS) to spatially examine the successes and failures of local, regional, and national protests. This research seeks to analyze when and where new kinds of civil disobedience could more effectively ‘push back’ against a variety of human rights violations. Regardless of Barack Obama’s success, the United States has not reached a “post-racial age,” civil vigilance continues to be vital, and anthropological observation and analysis remain pertinent. |
View the KML file and look at the 2007 March on the Pentagon in Google Earth
