Mapping for justice: from cartography to GIS, with Cathy Richards from the Open Environmental Data Project

If cartography, the ancestor of GIS, already displayed colonial patterns and racist stereotypes back in the day, why would the digital legacy of maps be any different? Maps have an authoritative value and hold power through the representation of the world from the perspective of who creates them. However, communities are often excluded from their design leading to the misrepresentation or omission of important landmarks and third places. In this episode, Cathy Richards explains why it is critical for communities to have the tools to paint their own stories through mapping, what is the role of communities in the development of tech powered solutions that include GIS and what are the risks associated with the exclusion of said communities.

Cathy is the Civic Science Fellow and Data Inclusion Specialist at the Open Environmental Data Proj ...