Calvin Young

Writ 2
Wilson
11/1/15
WP2
Nowadays everyone has a smartphone and can easily pull up a map to find a location,
eliminating the need of having to carrying a physical map. People often overlook how
convenient it is to have a map at their fingertips. Since maps are within everyones grasp many
people do not realize the drawbacks they have compared to physical maps. By studying
geography at UCSB, the department intends to correct these misconceptions about maps through
the visions they hope students will achieve. By doing so, I will argue that the vision of the
geography department creates conventions that allow students to see maps in a whole new way.
The department of Geography at UCSB has three points of view that it holds for all
students in the major. The first one being to build a community for creating knowledge about the
organisms living on earth, discovering new methods in furthering the development of
geographical science, and integrating aspects from different fields of science to better understand
spatio-temporal dynamics. These three visions demonstrate that geography is more than just
using maps as tools. These tools are there to guide students in following the visions of the
department. With regards to the goals, the professor of Geog w12 expects his students to learn
how to use geographic software to improve our spatial reasoning skills. By using the latest in
developed software it will enable us to make insightful analysis of the maps we examine with the
information we are given. Besides analyzing maps, Geog w12 also expresses its interest in

passing on knowledge from professor to student. In return, students will use the knowledge
obtained to expand their understanding about maps. In order to understand the visions in more
depth, I analyzed two academic journals.
The first piece of text, by Clarke deals with solving the mystery of the worlds oldest
map. In order to discuss the topic, the author takes part of the readers time to introduce a portion
of the history for the titles of worlds oldest map explaining, This siteoccupied from 9500
to 7700 years ago, covering the critical transition to agriculture and domesticated animals
(Clarke, 138). This follows our schools vision of integrating different sciences into geography.
By including the date such as 9500 to 7700 years ago of when the map was drawn we can
examine history around the time it was drawn and who used it, which brings in ideas of other
sciences to answer these questions.
Taking another glance in Clarkes journal, I see his arguments against ideas of whether it
was appropriate to label some drawings as a map. The author focuses his attention to the words
of Meece and explains why he thinks she is wrong, While Meece acknowledges that the
development of map-making was significantI not only dispute this assertion, I argue that
maps (Clarke, 139). From the evidence it is apparent that not all experts in the fields agree
with each other. Clarke shows his concern for the geography community through his attempt to
dispute Meece claims, so that members in the community are not mislead. For the author it is
important to discuss the correct definition of maps before labeling one as such. While Clarke is
concerned about discovering the worlds oldest map, the next article is geared towards ways to
use a map.
The academic journal, Do Maps Make Geography? Part 1: Redlining, Planned
Shrinkage, and the Places of Decline involves utilizing maps for data anaylsis. One of the ways

the journal analyzes maps is through the author use of reading between the lines to draw out
information that was hidden. Aalbers does so, by making a point that, we should be referring to
the practice of mapping rather than merely to the people who make maps (Aalbers, 532).From
this quote, I compared it to a previous line Aalbers mentions said by another author, The
problem was not the map per se, but the bad things people did with maps (Aalbers, 530). Aalber
realizes bad people are misusing maps, so the author focuses our attention to how maps can be
used in a better way. Similar to the vision of finding new methods to further development of
geographical science, the author believes in finding a way to use maps that is not easily abused
by someone with bad intentions. Looking through the intentions of others, the author also uses
his writing to critique the ideas of other peoples opinion on maps. For example, the authors
assessment on the idea of maps being inscriptions or representations he argues, the key to
deconstruct mapping is that maps are both (Aalbers, 531). By judging the words of others the
author creates his own innovative ideas to the field of study. Asides from contributing to
geographical science, Aalbers includes in his writing detailed descriptions about the map images
he is using in his text. Using the map of Baltimore, Aalbers describes, inner-city neighborhoods
surrounding the central business districts are colored red (Aalbers, 536). By clearly
explaining the map with words such as red the author shows readers where everything is when
he refers to them later on in his writing. These helpful details can give readers a mental image of
what the location in the map might be like. By viewing both text I can compare them to my Geog
w12 course.
Both text and the observations from my GeogW12 class in some way have changed the
way I view maps. The first goal that changed my views was the vision to build a community for
creating new knowledge, the journals accomplish this task by offering new ideas to areas in the

field we might have or have not known before, but also pulls reader into questioning ideas of
some experts over others. The class manages the same feat by educating students with various
methods and ideologies practiced in the field of geography. The methods I learn from class I can
view a map and point out information the map may or may not have and can name out specific
symbols map-makers add. Not only can I read maps with precision, but I can share this
knowledge to new people within the community. The final vision being to include other fields of
science to further improve geography. Within the classroom I am introduced to new kinds of
software that help with labs, moreover the journals conceive of their own methods on how maps
can be studied and utilized with the field, which I may consider when examining maps in the
future. In the classroom setting I apply various levels of math within the classroom to help
estimate distance from one location to another. While in the journals they provide historical
scientific estimations ranging from the age of a map to the statistical analysis taken from a map.
To conclude the vision of the geography department at UCSB revolves around three main
goals, building a community for creating knowledge, discovering new methods in the name of
geographical science, and integrating aspects from different fields of science. The next time you
look at a map, consider what kind of people designed the map, how outdated the map may be,
and what information do they provide or do not provide. Readers should also consider what kind
of information does the community want map readers to know, as well as the programming that
went in to designing a user friendly map for smartphone users.

Works Cited
Aalbers, Manuel B. "Do Maps Make Geography? Part 1: Redlining, Planned Shrinkage, and the
Places of Decline." ACME. Web.
Clarke, Keith C. "What Is the Worlds Oldest Map?" The Cartographic Journal 50.2 (2013):
136-43. Web.
"Vision Statement." UC Geography. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Nov. 2015. <http://geog.ucsb.edu/visionstatement/>.