ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a meditation on a map. A certain length of real space becomes one inch of map space. The map is a kind of text or a good example of the discourses of measurement. One of the clearest relationships displayed on this map is the difference between the oldest parts of the city and its newer, outlying areas. Its most obvious characteristic is its division into wards. It may be helpful here to frame our understanding of a ward map in recent theories about the public sphere. Nancy Fraser, moving beyond the work of Jurgen Habermas, summarizes in exemplary fashion what the term "public sphere" designates. If a city grid consisting of straight streets crossing at ninety-degree angles, then, is an efficient way to manage the movement of people and goods, ward maps represent the management of the body politic, hence, public discussion. However, the reality behind the idealized surface of the map is a different story.
