Images of Force: The Power of Maps in Community Development

Recent trends in critical geography have drawn attention to the secret political lives of maps. Beneath a veneer of abstraction and scientific neutrality, maps are deeply political devices, embedding within them perspectives on what is important in a community, what are assets and what are liabilities, what is central and what is marginal. By drawing on the historical example of the mapping work of the Tennessee Valley Authority in the United States, this article examines the power of maps in community development, land use planning and natural resource allocation. This examination yields a lesson in the significance of the maps that may be produced during community development, as well as birthing the possibility of a new strategy through the creation of alter maps.