ABSTRACT
Counter-mapping’s promise for development lies with its claims to make the invisible visible, producing a new, more accurate understanding of space through popular participation. Maps play an instrumental role in this approach, documenting the existence of indigenous territories, customary use, informal settlements, and other entities previously not found on state-issued maps. Counter-mapping demonstrates the fundamental incompleteness of the production of space as a constitutive aspect of hegemony, making visible the ways in which familiar forms of power and economy expand and intensify. Though the origins of counter-mapping are multiple and contested, they can generally be traced back to the end of the Cold War and the rise of neoliberal policies in Latin America. Counter-mapping took hold as a response to both, challenging the expansion of capitalist development into historical frontiers and the racial and ethnic hierarchies constitutive of nations.
