Paasi, Anssi: Review on Monmonier, M: No dig, no fly, no go: how maps restrict and control. Progress in Human Geography 36:2 (2012), pp. 282-289. Mark Monmonier, a distinguished professor of geography at Syracuse University, is well-known for his books on cartography and maps, not only in geography but also beyond geographical circles, where he has gained a reputation as a popular writer. A particularly notable contribution in this respect has been his How to Lie with Maps (Monmonier 1996). His writing style has been acclaimed as being characterized by a certain witty sense of humour, which is of course an extra bonus when trying to attract readers from outside academic circles. No dig, no fly, no go belongs to this genre and will doubtless find a readership both among academics and within the general public. The basic task of this book is to scrutinize what Monmonier calls prohibitive cartography, that is how borders, cartographic lines, and zones, for example, are put on maps at various spatial scales and how such elements are used as means of restriction, control, division and exclusion. Monmonier s book is thus a topical one in the current situation where much of the theoretical debate on space and borders in geography has scrutinized the possibilities of relational thinking and the roles of networks and has suggested how territory, borders or scale might be losing their former roles in the current dynamic matrix of interactions and meaning-making. Whether or not we agree with such viewpoints, these fundamental theoretical issues are not discussed in the book. Similarly, contrary to many theoretical accounts
2 dealing with the power of cartography and maps, Monmonier s book represents rather a chilly realism (this realism should not be confused with the theoretically grounded realist theories of political science or IR, however). For the purposes of his book, the author suggests that maps exert power in two ways: by shaping public opinion and by telling us where we can t go and what we can t do in specific places. It is the second theme in particular that he sets out to examine in the book, and the maps he studies are correspondingly labeled as imperative maps, since they are intended to stifle movement or to restrict activity on a spatial dimension (page 1). Monmonier discusses a number of issues related to prohibitive cartography in the course of the 12 well illustrated chapters and provides the reader with a massive number of concrete examples on various spatial scales. The titles of the chapters are perhaps more attractive than informative: Introduction: boundaries matter, Keep off!, Keep out!, Absentee landlords, Dividing the sea, Divide and govern, Contorted boundaries, wasted votes, Redlining and greenlining, Growth management, Vice Squad, No dig, no fly, no go and Electronic boundaries. In these chapters the author studies a diversity of bordered (territorial) spaces, the roles of concrete international land and maritime borders, property-related mapping, the practical processes of demarcation and the work of survey teams under demanding physical and political conditions. The list of topics discussed in the book also includes the drawing of colonial boundaries, border disputes, the manipulation of political (and racial) spaces/gerrymandering, zoning maps used by
3 city administrations for growth management, maps needed for handling the complexities of water use and the hydrological cycle, red and greenlining of cities, and cartographic practices related to the sex business and sex offenders in various US cities. Also discussed are the features of more narrowly targeted maps such as those created to promote safety or conservation (e.g. maps related to infrastructures, air space maps and zones needed in aviation and the changes caused by 9/11), and maps showing politically forbidden areas or cities (e.g. in the Soviet Union and the US during the Cold War). The last chapter examines the roles and constitution of electronic boundaries related to surveillance and control. These themes, and indeed many more, are discussed in the broad context of maps, mapping and cartography. The major geographical context for the book comes from 20 th -century North America, but the author also provides the reader with an impressive array of examples from other geographical contexts, moving fluently in time between the past and the present. The spatial contexts vary from Asian borders to Israel and Palestine, for example, and from the European Union s cross-border initiatives to Africa, from Antarctica to Russia, and from neighborhoods in cities to the process of imposing of colonial borders. The book does not provide any systematic analysis of or perspective on the history of cartography, but it is rich in empirical facts and observations. It already becomes obvious in the preface that the book is partly oriented towards the popular market, as the author states that to avoid leading the reader on
4 distracting forays into abstract treatments of power and territory, I focus on showing how prohibitive cartography works as a mapping tool and largely avoid the secondary literature (page vii). The book includes a list of selected readings related to each chapter after the cited literature, but this list does not extend to the currently mushrooming theoretical literature in various fields. This is a pity. For scholars interested in theoretical issues related to the power of maps and borders or their relations to the state, territory, territoriality, sovereignty, nationalism or maps of meaning, this book does not offer very much apart from some sporadic notes. Indeed, the author has not developed any theoretical framework for the book. Likewise, there are no links to ongoing debates or publications related to territory, borders or the complex spatialities of power that inevitably characterize maps, mapping and cartography. Monmonier writes generally that Make no mistake: a simple map of national boundaries can be a powerful symbol, imprinted in the minds of citizens and public officials (31) and that Once inscribed on a map, territorial boundaries become an enduring argument for entitlement and redress (69). On another occasion he suggests, in the context of green and redlining, Draw a boundary on a map, stick a label on it and people think it is real (129). While the book shows how borders are used for the purposes of control and restriction in various contexts, their roles remain ambivalent.
5 On the whole, in empirical terms this is a rich and well-documented book that shows how the practice of prohibitive mapping is widely embedded in small and largerscale societal realms, but the lack of conceptual steps devalues it for academic purposes. Anssi Paasi University of Oulu Monmonier, M (1996). How to lie with maps. 2 nd ed. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press.