ABSTRACT
Using the term cultural technique of mapping to view maps allows us to understand the production and use of maps as a closely entangled process of spatialisation, as well as to reconstruct all social practices into which maps are embedded, by which they are configured and through which they emerge, while remaining sensitive to historical implications. This chapter introduces the most important dimensions of mapping in general by exploring what exactly happens when something is 'mapped'. It discusses three key concepts for examining processes in the field of mapping. The chapter applies these concepts to examples from current research projects. Maps work increasingly within digital connections, in contexts in which every bit of information can be transformed into a 0–1 code that makes all information of a map 'programmable, alterable and subject to algorithmic manipulation'.
