#just map it

[power21stcentury]

#see power tuesdays: Mapping borders and walls

Map of Israel by Le Monde en Cartes, @LM_enCartes, 13 June 2016

This week on my blog “The nature of power in the 21st century”, I am pondering borders - frontiers, barriers, separations, walls - between countries, between countries and people, or just between people within a country. What is the relationship between power and borders?

France Culture Le monde se referme : la carte des murs aux frontières

Borders constitute and structure communities and states. They are directed against someone, and they are meant to protect, and/ or to differentiate those they enclose from those without. Borders regulate physically and psychologically.

The map at the very top by Le Monde depicts Israel’s security situation, and an apparent paradox: Israel manages to safeguard its external borders despite an geopolitically dangerous neighbourhood. In contrast, it is vulnerable within, and this despite existing walls and barriers.

Another interesting case of power and borders mapped above: In our seemingly borderless globalised world, we are currently witnessing walls springing up - France Culture has counted in total 65 built and planned walls around the world, totaling 40.000 km, equalling the earth’s circumference.

[power21stcentury]

#see power tuesdays: Mapping the geopolitics of football

Football Diplomacy - part of a series of maps by Arte “Le dessous des cartes” exploring the geopolitics of football.

[power21stcentury]

#see power tuesdays: EU Power matrix - Ranking Europe’s leaders and ambassadors

Politico brings you a chart that maps who really is in charge in Brussels. You are welcome!

[power21stcentury]

#see power tuesdays: Mapping fragile states

This week on my blog, I am asking the question: In a networked world where power is ever more diffused, what happens to fragile states? Can one keep them from failing? A first step is to take stock of the magnitude of the problem by asking what fragile states are, and where they are located. 

For 11 years, the Fund for Peace has been publishing the Fragile States Index. The Fund for Peace wants to promote sustainable security, the ability of a state to solve its own problems peacefully without an external military or administrative presence. The Index is compiled with the help of risk indicators based on freely available press articles and reports around the world.

 A quick look at the map reveals that quite a number of states are fragile, and that the consequences of such fragility, for their inhabitants or for their neighbours exclude the option of just shrugging and trying to ignore the problem. But what are some of the tools available to strengthen states, given that our own countries already struggle to implement policies on their own soil?

Tomorrow, on #learn power wednesdays, I will be looking back on our recent experience in state- and nation-building (spoiler alert: not so great) wondering what lies ahead.

[power21stcentury]

#see power tuesdays: Mapping cities in the 21st century

This week is dedicated to cities in our inter-connected, hyper-competitive world. I aim to cast a light on how power has shifted away from the nation state to a host of other, non-state actors - one of them urban centres.

Cities have the fascinating characteristic that they exist within states (and depend on them for their physical existence), but are also connected to other cities around the world. Via exchanges of goods, capital, labour and ideas, they seem to be forming an archipelago among themselves. For some rare “megapoles” around the globe, there is a certain feel of extraterritoriality, so far are they removed from the national economy they nominally inhabit.

Cities have become powerful political actors in their own right, and it is their linkages that are bound to have a strong impact on relationships between states, and on how power functions these days. Click here for a series of great maps by Parag Khanna that show you how the 21st century could indeed be shaped by cities.

[power21stcentury]

#see power tuesdays: Network mapping

This week is dedicated to exploring networks in the inter-dependent, hyper-competitive world we live in - the network society, brought about by information and communications technology, as well as economic globalisation. I am interested in networks within, and beyond states, which have siphoned power away from traditional actors such as states and their institutions.

Network mapping is a way to graphically depict who is connected to whom, to grasp and understand the logic of networks, and to identify key actors and linkages. Power resides in the capacity to mobilise network resources, and in the ability to connect to other networks.

You can try network mapping out for yourself - I am introducing you to Socilab, an application that can visualize and analyze your LinkedIn network.

[power21stcentury]

#see power tuesdays: Big data and art

Welcome to cyber week! Did you know? Ninety percent of data that exists in the world today was created in the past two years. Who controls this data originating from our activities online? What is being done with it?

An exhibition at Somerset House in London which ended last month explored the implications/ applications of big data through art.

Some beautiful and telling examples after the jump.

Listen to Usman Hague, founder of Umbrellium debating the implications of the data explosion

Discover the Internet of Things - A live, annotated map collects data from connected objects all over the world, allowing people to discover the objects around them and observe and comment on their behaviour. Indexed devices include energy, radiation, weather, and air quality devices as well as seismographs, iBeacons, ships, aircraft and even animal trackers.

Signal Noise hosted their own Big Bang Data workshop, creating an interactive data experience.

“Dear Data” by Stefanie Posavic and Georgia Lupi - Stefanie and Giorgia post hand-drawn ‘data postcards’ to each other between London and New York inspired by Fluxus and postal art that was pioneered by the likes of Yoko Ono in the 1960s.

And lastly, a blast from the past. On December 9th 1968 Douglas Engelbart gave a demo of various technologies that is breathtaking in its visionary thinking, that we’re still feeling the impact of today. 

[power21stcentury]

#see power tuesdays: Digital social individuals

Week three of thinking about mapping power in a networked world in which I look at the first piece of the puzzle, the individual. Yesterday, I posted a quote by Peter Sloterdijk on the nature of modern social existence - which seemingly corresponds to solitary confinement in close physical proximity to others...In any case, even if we are a bit less pessimist about sharing space, social media play a big role in establishing links between the bubbles that make up society.

An interesting report detailing social media use by country by We are social after the jump.

We are social: Special report on social digital media usage world-wide in 2015