The Place Names of French Guiana in the Face of the Geoweb: Between Data Sovereignty, Indigenous Knowledge, and Cartographic Deregulation
Publication: Cartographica: The International Journal for Geographic Information and Geovisualization
Volume 55, Number 1
Abstract
Abstract
French Guiana, the only overseas region of Europe located in South America, is faced with the claims of identity politics, particularly those of indigenous peoples, who propose alternative place names. This critical analysis of the process of a posteriori recognition of toponyms is based on deconstruction of local, national, and international toponymic databases circulating on the geoweb, supported by interviews with the advocates of these corpora. We propose a critical analysis of toponymic data flows, examining how these data transit through the Web and disappear into the limbo of the Internet or gradually become definitive. This highlights the complexity of the current digital geographic information landscape: national institutes defend a form of data sovereignty for their territory, but they are caught between the digital empowerment of local communities now able to produce counter-cartographies and planetwide cartographic deregulation emanating from the Web giants.
Résumé
La Guyane française, seule région ultramarine d’Europe située en Amérique du Sud est confrontée à des revendications identitaires, en particulier celle des peuples premiers qui proposent des toponymies alternatives. Une déconstruction des bases de données toponymiques locales, nationales et mondiales qui circulent sur le géoweb couplée à des entretiens avec les promoteurs de ces corpus permettent de proposer une analyse critique des processus de reconnaissance des toponymes en aval de leur création. En s’interrogeant sur la façon dont ces données transitent sur le Web, disparaissent dans les limbes d’Internet ou font progressivement autorité, nous proposons une analyse critique des flux de données toponymiques. Celle-ci permet de souligner la complexité du paysage de l’information géographique numérique actuel : alors que les instituts nationaux défendent une forme de souveraineté informationnelle de leur territoire, ils sont pris en tenaille entre l’empowerment numérique des communautés locales qui leur permet désormais de produire des contre-cartes et des dérégulations cartographiques planétaires issues des géants du Web.
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Cartographica: The International Journal for Geographic Information and Geovisualization
Volume 55 • Number 1 • Spring 2020
Pages: 15 - 28
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2019 University of Toronto Press.
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Published in print: Spring 2020
Published online: 13 March 2020
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Cartographica 2020 55:1, 15-28
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