“The Care and Feeding of Power Structures”: Reconceptualizing Geospatial Intelligence through the Countermapping Efforts of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

Abstract

This article advances three interrelated arguments. First, by focusing on the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee’s (SNCC) Research Department, an undertheorized chapter in the civil rights movement, we advance an expressly spatialized understanding of the African American freedom struggle. Second, by focusing on an SNCC-produced pamphlet titled The Care and Feeding of Power Structures, we advance a larger historical geography of geospatial agency and countermapping of racial capital within black civil rights struggles. SNCC’s research praxis, which we argue constitutes a radical geospatial intelligence project, recognizes that geographical methods, information, and analytical insights are not just the purview of experts but are a set of political tools and processes deployed by a wide range of groups. Our article develops a deeper understanding of the rich spatial practices underlying black geographies and the role of geospatial intelligence in a democratic society outside the military–industrial–academic complex. Key Words: black geographies, civil rights, countermapping, geospatial intelligence, SNCC.

本文推进三大相关主张。首先，通过聚焦学生非暴力协作委员会（SNCC）的研究部门——一个公民权运动中未经授权的支会——我们推进对非裔美国人自由斗争的显着空间化理解。再者，通过聚焦 SNCC 所生产的标题为“权力结构的关照与喂养”之小册子，我们推进地理空间施为的广泛历史地理学，以及黑人公民权斗争中对种族资本的反抗製图。我们主张，SNCC 的研究实践，构成了一个激进的地理空间智能计画，认识到地理学方法、信息与分析洞见，并非仅是专家的权限，而是由广泛的团体所部署的一组政治工具与过程。我们的文章，对支撑黑色地理学的丰富空间实践，以及地理空间智能在军工学术复合体之外的民主社会中所扮演的角色，建立更为深刻的理解。关键词：黑色地理学，公民权，反抗製图，地理空间智能，SNCC。

Este artículo adelanta tres argumentos interrelacionados. Primero, orientando nuestro interés hacia el Departamento de Investigaciones del Comité Coordinador del Estudiante No Violento (SNCC), un capítulo poco teorizado del movimiento de los derechos civiles, promovemos un entendimiento expresamente espacializado de la lucha por la libertad afroamericana. Segundo, enfocándonos en un panfleto producido por el SNCC titulado “El cuidado social y las estructuras del poder en el programa de alimentos”, impulsamos una geografía histórica más amplia de la agencia geoespacial y del contramapeo del capital social dentro de la lucha por los derechos civiles negros. La praxis investigativa del SNCC, que a nuestro modo de ver constituye un radical proyecto de inteligencia geoespacial, reconoce que la metodología, información y perspicacias analíticas geográficas no caen solamente dentro del ámbito de expertos, sino que son un conjunto de herramientas y procesos políticos desplegados por una amplia gama de grupos. Nuestro artículo desarrolla un entendimiento más profundo de las ricas prácticas espaciales que subrayan las geografías negras, y del papel de la inteligencia geoespacial en una sociedad democrática por fuera del complejo militar–industrial–académico. Palabras clave: contramapeo, derechos civiles, geografías negras, inteligencia geoespacial, SNCC.

Acknowledgments

We are indebted to the anonymous reviewers who improved previous versions of the article and to Nik Heynen for his helpful commentary. We also thank Anna Brand and Lorraine Dowler, who read over previous drafts of this research. Omissions are our own.

Additional information

Funding

This research was made possible by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

Notes on contributors

Joshua F. J. Inwood

JOSHUA F. J. INWOOD is Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and the Rock Ethics Institute at The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include civil rights geographies, memorialization and truth work in the United States, and broader interests in urban and cultural geography.

Derek H. Alderman

DEREK H. ALDERMAN is Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37966. E-mail: [email protected]. His research on race relations, public memory, popular culture, and heritage tourism in the U.S. South focuses on the rights of African Americans to claim the power to commemorate the past and shape cultural landscapes as part of a broader goal of social and spatial justice.