Mapping machines: Activist cartographies of the border and labor lands of Europe

This dissertation explores how cartographic and geographic methods are being utilized as tools by social movements for new ends. In particular, I focus on social movements based in Spain that are developing cartographies of the conflicting territories of the European Union and its construction. The activist mapping projects engaged in this dissertation are understood as a form of 'other' cartography: a form of social movement-based knowledge deploying the traditional research tool of cartography to new ends. Cartography, often labeled an instrument of fixation to facilitate appropriation of territory by established power structures, becomes a counter tool for anti-systemic movements. My work examines how social movements employ spatial and cartographic knowledges in order to analyze and transform existing spaces and prefigure alternative ones. This basic tenet of the thesis splits into two types of argument: conceptual and empirical. Conceptually, I answer why these activist cartographies matter, socially and intellectually, and how they fit into a broader historical moment. The empirical argument follows by examining the procedures and venues used by mapping movements and how activist cartography is developing in Spain and Europe.