Map Room Conversations

ABSTRACT In this introduction to the Special Section entitled ‘Map Room Conversations’ we explain the origins of the collection in a set of sessions co‐organised by the authors at the 2024 Annual International Conference of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG). These sessions paired presenters working on similar topics from different perspectives, who briefly introduced a selection of maps or mapping objects to participants and then engaged in discussion and dialogue with attendees. The co‐authored papers in this collection reflect on these conversations, and the process of selecting and presenting maps from the Society's collection. We frame these papers by introducing debates from cartography and geography regarding the nature of maps (ontology) and the process of mapping (ontogenesis). We show that technological developments prompted the focus on mapping, but then argue that traditional map collections can also be sites for map formation, contestation and reinterpretation.