Mapping the historic city: Mapmaking, preservation zoning, and violence

Abstract

The paper presents a critique of the cartographic construction of Rattanakosin City, the historic district of Bangkok, Thailand. Drawing on critical cartography literature, I argue that Rattanakosin City has emerged from a particular intersection between cartography and historic preservation as the former is used to legitimize the latter. The paper explores how geometric lines, boundaries, and colored zones have been deployed in constructing Rattanakosin as central and as whole. The paper goes on to show that this particular cartographic construction has a hegemonic potential as it is a double silencing that eclipses outside historical geographies, while silencing and subsuming those inside under the category of “historic preservation” landuse.