Background information or future vision? Mapping wild reindeer landscapes in a planning process

Abstract

Despite the importance of maps, both as background information for landscape management and as plans, there is surprisingly little literature on the influence of maps in landscape planning. Following post-representational theory, this paper argues that maps are processual and that understanding the power of maps involves an understanding of their performance. Rather than being a representation, an artefact, an argument or a proposition, a map is a multi-vocal phenomenon that harbours multiple possibilities. During one regional wild reindeer planning process in Norway, a habitat map became surprisingly powerful. By combining a visual analysis of the map and an intertextual analysis of planning documents and interviews with relevant actors, I show how their visual traits convey social structures, which cater to the maps’ performative potential. Understanding the varied ways maps are used in political processes may aid our understanding of their power, and possibly of the political outcomes of the same processes.