Geocurrents offers brief, map-illustrated analyses of current events, both major and minor, from all reaches of the world. The blog is based on the proposition that geographical and historical background information can greatly enhance our understanding of what is happening in the world. Geographical comprehension, in turn, means knowing not just where event occur, but what characterizes those places and differentiates them from other localities. Spatial patterns of both the physical and human realms continually mold the social processes that generate historical development and contemporary events. By examining such patterns through the use of maps, a better understanding of current global events can be gained.
The daily Geocurrents postings running Monday through Friday are by Martin W. Lewis. Many of these posts turn to geopolitical conflicts, examining issues of sovereignty and local autonomy as well as disagreements between countries over territorial control. The underlying rationale for this focus is the belief that we are often led astray by the standard world political map, which divides the globe into 192 or so clearly demarcated units, simultaneously defined as countries, states, and nations (or nation-states). But geopolitical reality, as the blog seeks to show, is a vastly more complicated matter. The received map of the world is based not just on geopolitical realities but also on diplomatic pretense. It is, moreover, continually contested by armed parties on the ground; there are more active secession movements in the world today than there are recognized sovereign states. While we tend to think of the world political map as a simple descriptive document that shows how the world is partitioned among its constituent countries, it is actually a normative document, one that shows how the world would be ideally organized, according to the principles embraced by the United Nations and other international organizations. To gain an elementary understanding of global geopolitics, one needs to master the world political map; advanced comprehension, however, demands that we delve more deeply. GeoCurrents aims to offers guidelines for doing so, as will a forthcoming book by Martin W. Lewis and Karen E. Wigen, tentatively entitled Beyond the World Map.
Weekend Geocurrents postings are by Samuel Raphael Franco, the site’s webmaster. These posts focus more on providing engaging explorations of places in the news and more generally in the public consciousness through the use of Google Earth tours and other innovative visualization techniques.
The daily Geocurrents postings running Monday through Friday are by Martin W. Lewis. Many of these posts turn to geopolitical conflicts, examining issues of sovereignty and local autonomy as well as disagreements between countries over territorial control. The underlying rationale for this focus is the belief that we are often led astray by the standard world political map, which divides the globe into 192 or so clearly demarcated units, simultaneously defined as countries, states, and nations (or nation-states). But geopolitical reality, as the blog seeks to show, is a vastly more complicated matter. The received map of the world is based not just on geopolitical realities but also on diplomatic pretense. It is, moreover, continually contested by armed parties on the ground; there are more active secession movements in the world today than there are recognized sovereign states. While we tend to think of the world political map as a simple descriptive document that shows how the world is partitioned among its constituent countries, it is actually a normative document, one that shows how the world would be ideally organized, according to the principles embraced by the United Nations and other international organizations. To gain an elementary understanding of global geopolitics, one needs to master the world political map; advanced comprehension, however, demands that we delve more deeply. GeoCurrents aims to offers guidelines for doing so, as will a forthcoming book by Martin W. Lewis and Karen E. Wigen, tentatively entitled Beyond the World Map.
Weekend Geocurrents postings are by Samuel Raphael Franco, the site’s webmaster. These posts focus more on providing engaging explorations of places in the news and more generally in the public consciousness through the use of Google Earth tours and other innovative visualization techniques.