Radiation mapping is too important to be left to experts : the role of maps in Japan after March 11. 2011
Jean-Christophe Plantin, Postdoctoral Fellow of Communication and School of Information, University of Michigan
Monday, April 7, 2014 from 1 - 2:30 pm
Clark Instruction Space
A tradition of "critical cartography" has highlighted that maps can either serve the interests of those in power, or empower those seeking social justice. This talk will present how this ambivalence of the cartography is present in contemporary web-based mapping application. It will describe the production of radiation maps to address the lack of information directly following the Fukushima Daiichi power plant explosions in March 11. 2011, by specifically focusing on three points: how these maps were used along with innovative initiatives to find radiation data; how these mapmakers gathered and communicated online in an ad hoc crisis infrastructure; how the maps were used to sort out different and possibly contradictory radiation measures and to make sense of the radiation situation in the country.
Speaker Biography
Jean-Christophe Plantin is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan (Communication Studies Department & School of Information). His dissertation was about the creation and use of participatory maps during public debates, with the case study of citizen radiation mapping initiatives after the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant. He holds MAs from Université Paris 8 and from the European Graduate School, and a PhD from the Université de Technologie de Compiègne, France.
Light refreshment will be served. If you have any question, feel free to email Jungwon Yang ( yangjw@umich.edu) and Keiko Yokota-Carter(kyokotac@umich.
