State Of The Theory

This is Episode 18 of the State of the Theory Podcast. Politics. Power. Popular Culture. And other stuff, probably. In this series, we’re like super nerdy philosophical DJs: mashing up Serious Academic Questions with the most topical news and trends in pop culture. Each week, we’ll tackle a new topic and collide it with ‘critical theory’ (we’re pretty loose with our definitions, though, so expect the unexpected). Our aim is to destroy the stuff we know, explore the stuff we don’t and unsettle everything we think we know about the world. We take the obvious, the commonsensical, the certain, and then we rip it all to shreds. We are your theory doctors and we are always on call. In this episode, we look at the history and politics of mapping. Using the theories of Brian Harley and Sumathi Ramaswamy, we explore the power dynamics of maps, and how nation-states seek to control the production and reception of maps. The texts we refer to are: “Geography and Some Explorers” by Joseph Conrad (http://www.ric.edu/f