BMET 25A06 - « Mind the map »: Approaches to Cartography

Mapping and cartography have long been used in social sciences, in geography and beyond. Political

scientists, historians and sociologists have increasingly used such tools, which have become more and more

present in the media, the administrations and the corporate world as well. Maps in all their forms have gained

a strong foothold in all these fields and are now easier to produce thanks to the digital tools making their

production easily accessible by non-specialists. This workshop has two main objectives. The first is to master

critical approaches to cartographic designs, not only thanks to a better understanding of the foundations of

cartography but also of their status as a discourse on various objects of study. The second is for the students

to acquire skills enabling them to make their own maps and designs with some of the basic digital tools

available, in relation to the multidisciplinary issues examined at SciencesPo.

Created 5 years ago, the workshop has been evolving and should continue to do so, based on suggestions

made by students and new ideas: students interested in actively contributing to working on new formats and

training methods are more than welcome (flipped classrooms are envisioned for some sessions, for example).

Interest in both qualitative and quantitative data. Basic knowledge of statistics is very highly recommended.

Assessment will be based on three mandatory assignments and a grade for active participation. The

assignments will include the production of a set of thematic maps (one individual exercise), the preparation of

a 3-minute video analyzing a set of maps and of a poster combining quantitative and qualitative methods on a

list of topics selected with the students (two collective exercises). The first assignments compose 20 to 30%

of the final grade, the poster 40% and the grade for active participation 10%