Post-representationele cartografie: het onderzoeken van de rol van opkomende cartografische praktijken in dekolonisatie en het (her) vestigen van sociaal-ruimtelijke rechtvaardigheid

This dissertation on Post-Representational Cartography: Exploring the Role of Emergent Cartographic Practices in Decolonization and (Re) Establishing Socio-Spatial Justice, critically examines the entanglement of mapping with colonial and postcolonial power in coastal Kenya. It argues that maps, far from being neutral or technical instruments, have historically operated as instruments of domination, constructing boundaries, erasing Indigenous spatial knowledge, and legitimizing state authority. These "hegemonic" cartographies, rooted in Western Cartesian logics of abstraction and fixity, continue to reproduce inequality by privileging state-centered and technocratic worldviews while marginalizing lived, embodied, and cultural spatialities. The thesis advances an alternative framework—post-representational cartography—which reconceptualizes maps not as static products but as relational, performative, and ontogenetic practices that emerge through collective encounters, memory, and embodied experience. This approach is grounded in a transductive methodology that allows theory and practice to evolve together in dialogue with local communities. Through case studies in Mida Creek, Kisiwani Island, and Lamu, the research employs counter-mapping, storytelling, ground-drawing, sound-based mapping, and art-based residencies as experimental practices that center Indigenous voices and epistemologies often excluded from state maps. These participatory processes enabled communities to reclaim suppressed histories, reassert cultural identities, and negotiate more just relations to land and commons. The findings articulate several key contributions to cartographic theory and decolonial practice. The concept of cartographic violence highlights how maps actively erase or distort lived spatialities. Counter-mapping is reframed as a process of (re)commoning, whereby communities reestablish collective ties to land and memory. The introduction of cartographic caricature provides a visual epistemology that exaggerates and distorts symbols to reveal hidden layers of power and erasure. More broadly, the work emphasizes relational ontologies of space, recognizing spatiality as dynamic and co-produced, and foregrounds the performative nature of mapping as a practice that not only describes but actively shapes worlds. The dissertation concludes that decolonizing and re-ontologizing mapping is essential for achieving socio-spatial justice. It calls for emancipatory cartographies that embrace epistemic humility, unsettle colonial continuities, and valorize plural ways of knowing and experiencing space. By mobilizing creative pedagogies and participatory practices, maps can become tools of solidarity, imagination, and healing. In doing so, this work not only reframes cartographic theory beyond representation but also provides practical pathways for scholars, planners, and communities to co-create more inclusive and equitable spatial futures.