Abstract

This paper employs critical geography to advance a fresh philosophical orientation of cognitive injustice and Otherness. Operating under the assumption that modern cartography is entangled with power, knowledge and politics, this study examines how maps construct and sustain the identity of the social, cultural and political Other. Synthesizing Boaventura de Sousa Santos’ work on abyssal thinking and ideologies of the Other, a conceptual framework for demonstrating how maps are inscribed with power was presented, theorizing the racialization and naturalization of geographies and identities. The result, inevitably, is a world separated by abyssal lines that threaten global human connectivity.

Key words: Otherness, Abyssal Othering, ideology, mercator projection, identity, critical geography.