Maps as Inscription of Power: Imposing Visibility on New York’s “Shadow Transit”

ABSTRACT

This article examines a digital map depicting paratransit in New York City as an example of work that, in not taking into account how impositions of visibility might impact vulnerable populations, risks exposing users of paratransit to the gaze of more powerful lookers. Building on the literature of maps coming out of visual studies, rhetorical studies, and technical communication, this examination shows how maps, as modes of visual communication, participate and extend a dominant visual culture that too often extends power into the spaces and places populated by vulnerable populations. It concludes with recommendations for how to avoid these exposures.

Notes

1. I wish to thank Fernando Sánchez for feedback in early drafts of this article, as well as the two RR reviewers, Donnie Johnson Sackey and Kyle Vealey, for their generous and generative comments.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rubén Casas

Rubén Casas is an Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington Tacoma.