IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v48y2016i4p648-664.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

‘Pledging the future’: Investment, risks and rewards in the topographic mapping of Northern Rhodesia, 1928–1955

Author

Listed:
  • Elizabeth Haines

Abstract

This article explores the uneven patterns of topographic mapping of colonial Northern Rhodesia (today Zambia). These patterns were generated in the years 1927–1931 and have an enduring effect today. Previous accounts describe colonial mapping in Africa as ‘incomplete’, but this is an inadequate conclusion. The article proposes that these unsatisfactory narratives of cartography can be corrected by applying the model of a cartographic economy to the close reading of archival sources. This model is used to interrogate topographic unevenness within the framework of the interests of diverse parties, with differing values and resources. It reveals that the patterns of topographic production were particularly strongly linked to aerial photographic projects. These projects documented areas that were preconceived as valuable. However, the article reveals that the cartographic economy was determined by more than just the value of the land, as the value of the cartographic representation itself could be manipulated independently. This perspective should be considered in the study of British mapping of other colonial territories.

Suggested Citation

  • Elizabeth Haines, 2016. "‘Pledging the future’: Investment, risks and rewards in the topographic mapping of Northern Rhodesia, 1928–1955," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 48(4), pages 648-664, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:48:y:2016:i:4:p:648-664
    DOI: 10.1177/0308518X15594808
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0308518X15594808
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0308518X15594808?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cyril Ehrlich, 1973. "Building and Caretaking: Economic Policy in British Tropical Africa, 1890–1960," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 26(4), pages 649-667, November.
    2. Lembke B., 1918. "√ a. p," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 111(1), pages 709-712, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sergei Rogosin & Maryna Dubatovskaya, 2017. "Letnikov vs. Marchaud: A Survey on Two Prominent Constructions of Fractional Derivatives," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 6(1), pages 1-15, December.
    2. , Aisdl, 2019. "What Citizenship for What Transition?: Contradictions, Ambivalence, and Promises in Post-Socialist Citizenship Education in Vietnam," OSF Preprints jyqp5, Center for Open Science.
    3. Valerio Antonelli & Raffaele D'Alessio & Roberto Rossi, 2014. "Budgetary practices in the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Munitions in Italy, 1915-1918," Accounting History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(2-3), pages 139-160, November.
    4. Karlsson, Martin & Nilsson, Therese & Pichler, Stefan, 2012. "What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger? The Impact of the 1918 Spanish Flu Epidemic on Economic Performance in Sweden," Working Paper Series 911, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    5. Roger R. Betancourt, 1969. "R. A. EASTERLIN. Population, Labor Force, and Long Swings in Economic Growth: The American Experience. Pp. xx, 298. New York: National Bureau of Economic Research (Distributed by Columbia University P," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 384(1), pages 183-192, July.
    6. Singh, Nirupama & Kumari, Babita & Sharma, Shailja & Chaudhary, Surbhi & Upadhyay, Sumant & Satsangi, Vibha R. & Dass, Sahab & Shrivastav, Rohit, 2014. "Electrodeposition and sol–gel derived nanocrystalline N–ZnO thin films for photoelectrochemical splitting of water: Exploring the role of microstructure," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 242-252.
    7. Rathberger Andreas, 2014. "The “Piano Virtuosos” of International Politics: Informal Diplomacy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth Century Ottoman Empire," New Global Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 8(1), pages 9-29, March.
    8. Seán Kenny & Jason Lennard & Kevin Hjortshøj O’Rourke, 2020. "An annual index of Irish industrial production, 1800-1921," Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers _185, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    9. Karlsson, Martin & Nilsson, Therese & Pichler, Stefan, 2014. "The impact of the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic on economic performance in Sweden," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 1-19.
    10. Victoria Y. Fan & Dean T. Jamison & Lawrence H. Summers, 2016. "The Inclusive Cost of Pandemic Influenza Risk," NBER Working Papers 22137, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Peter Willmott, 1969. "Some Social Trends," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 6(3), pages 286-308, November.
    12. Feldkamp, Cora L., 1945. "Vanilla: Culture, Processing and Economics: A List of References," USDA Miscellaneous 319330, United States Department of Agriculture.
    13. Richens, Peter, 2009. "The economic legacies of the ‘thin white line’: indirect rule and the comparative development of sub-Saharan Africa," Economic History Working Papers 27879, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    14. Luo, Ming & Wu, Shaomin, 2019. "A comprehensive analysis of warranty claims and optimal policies," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 276(1), pages 144-159.
    15. Toxvaerd, Flavio, 2010. "Recurrent Infection and Externalities in Prevention," CEPR Discussion Papers 8112, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. Thomas J. Miceli, 2013. "Collective Responsibility," Working papers 2013-23, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics.
    17. Dileep M. Wagle, 1981. "Imperial Preference and the Indian Steel Industry, 1924–39," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 34(1), pages 120-131, February.
    18. Markevich, Andrei & Harrison, Mark, 2011. "Great War, Civil War, and Recovery: Russia's National Income, 1913 to 1928," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 71(3), pages 672-703, September.
    19. Di Novi, Cinzia & Jacobs, Rowena & Migheli, Matteo, 2018. "Smoking Inequality across Genders and Socio-economic Classes. Evidence from Longitudinal Italian Data," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 201802, University of Turin.
    20. Hervé Crès & Itzhak Gilboa, & Nicolas Vieille, 2012. "Bureaucracy in Quest for Feasibility," Working Papers hal-00973094, HAL.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:48:y:2016:i:4:p:648-664. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.