The Power of Maps - Part Two
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In 1973 Peters called for a ‘new cartography’ to challenge what he regarded as neo-imperialist world mappings, noting the importance of showing continents in their true size relative to each other, to ensure the developing world was treated fairly. To make his point he inevitably contrasted his equal-area map with those based on the standard Mercator projection – which greatly exaggerates the size of land masses in the higher latitudes, at the expense of those in the tropical regions, home to the majority of developing countries – and rejected the use of other equal-area maps which used curved lines of longitude. His projection certainly draws attention to the global ‘South’, specifically Africa, due to the distinctive shapes given to the continents. However, it has almost invariably been published with Europe as top-centre and cannot really be said to subvert hegemonic representations. Despite the fact that the projection was not particularly innovative (being just one of a family of equal-area maps), Peters managed to convince many charities and even the United Nations to adopt it as the politically correct map for development education.
