Using Google Earth for a critical counter-mapping of prison expansion
This article explores the links between cartography, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and spaces of confinement. From the perspective of a critical reappropriation of GIS, it shows that mainstream software programs such as Google Earth can contribute to a ‘counter-mapping’ of prison expansion in the contemporary era. Applied to Champ-Dollon prison (Geneva, Switzerland), this approach proves to be relevant in deconstructing and challenging the myth of Switzerland’s small, ‘humane’ prisons. The contributions of the counter-cartographic approach are highlighted at several levels. From a methodological perspective, the case study illustrates how Google Earth’s functions of spatio-temporal exploration can be used ; in this way, the article proposes a method for apprehending carceral ‘circuits’ that can be replicated in other contexts. From an epistemological perspective, it reveals an under-researched dimension of the punitive turn, namely its embeddedness in the territory and its materialisation in landscape and architecture. Finally, from a political and transformative perspective, in line with Gill et al. (2018), the article points out the potentials of GIS as tools of resistance to the ongoing proliferation of confinement spaces.