Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

In December 2010, HarassMap was launched as a Cairo-based interactive online mapping interface for reporting and mapping incidents of sexual harassment anonymously and in real time, in Egypt. The project’s use of spatial information technologies for crowdmapping sexual harassment raises important questions about the use of crowdsourced mapping as a technique of global human security governance, as well as the techno-politics of interpreting and representing spaces of gendered security and insecurity in Egypt’s urban streetscape. By recoding Egypt’s urban landscape into spaces subordinated to the visual cartography of the project’s crowdsourced data, HarassMap obscures the complex assemblage that it draws together as the differentially open space of the Egyptian street – spaces that are territorialized and deterritorialized for authoritarian control, state violence, revolt, rape, new solidarities, gender reversals, sectarian tensions, and class-based mobilization. What is at stake in my analysis is the plasticity of victimage: to what extent can attempts to ‘empower’ women be pursued at the microlevel without amplifying the similarly imperial techniques of objectifying them as resources used to justify other forms of state violence? The question requires taking seriously the practices of mapping and targeting as an interface for securing public space.

Keywords

Egypt gender human security intervention securitization sexual violence Crowdmapping

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Adey

(2010a) Vertical security in the megacity: Legibility, mobility and aerial politics. Theory, Culture & Society 27(6): 51–67.

Adey

(2010b) Aerial Life: Spaces, Mobilities, Affects. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

Adey

Whitehead

Williams

(2011) Introduction: Air-target distance, reach and the politics of verticality. Theory, Culture & Society 28(7–8): 173–187.

Ahram.org (2013) Activists commemorate eighth anniversary of ‘Black Wednesday’. Ahram Online, 25 May. Available at: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/72300/Egypt/Politics-/Activists-commemorate-eighth-anniversary-of-Black-.aspx (accessed 14 May 2014).

Allam

(2014) Excuse us for being sceptical. Daily News Egypt, 21 June. Available at: http://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2014/06/21/excuse-us-sceptical/ (accessed 29 September 2014).

Amar

(2011a) Turning the gendered politics of the security state inside out? Charging the police with sexual harassment in Egypt. International Feminist Journal of Politics 13(3): 299–328.

Amar

(2011b) Middle East masculinity studies: Discourses on ‘men in crisis’, industries of gender in revolution. Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies 7(3): 36–70.

Amar

(2013) The Security Archipelago: Human-security States, Sexuality Politics, and the End of Neoliberalism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Amnesty International (2013) Egypt: Impunity fuels sexual violence. Available at: http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/egypt-impunity-fuels-sexual-violence-2013–02–06 (accessed 10 May 2014).

10.

Aradau

(2010) Security that matters: Critical infrastructure and objects of protection. Security Dialogue 41(5): 491–514.

11.

Aradau

Huysmans

(2014) Critical methods in international relations: The politics of techniques, devices and acts. European Journal of International Relations 20(3): 596–619.

12.

Bell

(2012) Egypt’s sexual harassment of women ‘epidemic’. BBC, 3 September. Available at: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-19440656 (accessed 5 May 2014).

13.

Bennett

(2010) Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Durham: Duke University Press.

14.

Brabham

(2008) Crowdsourcing as a model for problem solving: An introduction and cases. Convergence 14(1): 75–90.

15.

Burns

(2014) Moments of closure in the knowledge politics of digital humanitarianism. Geoforum 53: 51–62.

16.

Chick

(2010) In Cairo, an effort to put sexual harassment on the map – via Twitter and Text. The Christian Science Monitor, 23 November. Available at: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2010/1123/In-Cairo-an-effort-to-put-sexual-harassment-on-the-map-via-Twitter-and-text (accessed 5 May 2014).

17.

Christie

(2010) Critical voices and human security: To endure, to engage or to critique? Security Dialogue 41(2): 169–190.

18.

Coutard

Guy

(2007) STS and the city: Politics and practices of hope. Science, Technology, and Human Values 32(6): 713–734.

19.

Crampton

(2010) Cartographic calculations of territory. Progress in Human Geography 35(1): 92–103.

20.

Crampton

Elden

(2006) Space, politics, calculation: An introduction. Social and Cultural Geography 7(5): 681–685.

21.

Crutcher

Zook

(2008) Placemarks and waterlines: Racialized cyberscapes in post-Katrina Google Earth. Geoforum 40: 523–534.

22.

Deleuze

(1990) Postscript on control societies. In: Negotiations 1972–1990. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 177–182.

23.

Dillon

Lobo-Guerrero

(2008) Biopolitics of security in the 21^st century: An introduction. Review of International Studies 34: 265–292.

24.

Egypt Independent (2012) 172 arrested on sexual harassment charges; still not enough, say activists. Egypt Independent, 28 October. Available at: http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/172-arrested-sexual-harassment-charges-still-not-enough-say-activists (accessed 5 May 2014).

25.

Elden

(2009) Terror and Territory: The Spatial Extent of Sovereignty. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

26.

Elden

(2013) Secure the volume: Vertical geopolitics and the depth of power. Political Geography 34: 35–51.

27.

Foucault

(2007) Security, Territory, Population: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1977–1978. New York, NY: Picador.

28.

Gad

Hassan

(2012) HarassMap Annual report: December 2010–March 2012. English. Cairo: HarassMap.org.

29.

Geographies of Violence Delhi (2014). Available at: https://govdelhi.crowdmap.com (accessed 3 May 2014).

30.

Graham

Zook

(2011) Visualizing global cyberscapes: Mapping user-generated placemarks. Journal of Urban Technology 18(1): 115–132.

31.

Graham

(2004) Vertical geopolitics: Baghdad and after. Antipode 36(1): 12–23.

32.

Graham

(2011) Cities Under Siege: The New Military Urbanism. New York, NY: Verso.

33.

Graham

Hewitt

(2013) Getting off the ground: On the politics of urban verticality. Progress in Human Geography 37(1): 72–92.

34.

Grant

(2008) The all-seeing Air Force. Air Force Magazine, September, 2008.

35.

Gregory

(2011) From a view to a kill: Drones and late modern war. Theory, Culture & Society 28 (7–8): 188–215.

36.

HarassMap (2014). What We Do, The Map. Available at: http://HarassMap.org/en/what-we-do/the-map (accessed 3 May 2014).

37.

HarassMap (2015). Why is sexual harassment so prevalent in Egypt? Frequently Asked Questions. Available at: http://harassmap.org/en/news/press-kits/harassmap-frequently-asked-questions/ (accessed June 29, 2015).

38.

Haraway

(1988) Situated knowledges: The science question in feminism and the privilege of partial perspective. Feminist Studies 14(3): 575–599.

39.

Hudson

(2005) ‘Doing’ security as though humans matter: A feminist perspective on gender and the politics of human security. Security Dialogue 36(2): 155–174.

40.

Human Rights Watch (New York) (2013) Egypt: Epidemic of sexual violence. Human Rights Watch, 3 July.

41.

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Lecture with Rebecca Chiao (2013, February 6). HarassMap: Social mapping sexual harassment and violence in Egypt. Video available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLq7fCUQANM (accessed 3 May 2014).

42.

Kingsley

(2014) Egyptian police ‘using rape as a weapon’ against dissident groups. The Guardian, 12 April. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/12/egypt-police-rape-dissidents-crackdown-16000-arrested (accessed 29 September 2014).

43.

Kurgan

(2013) Close Up at a Distance: Mapping, Technology, and Politics. Cambridge, MA: Zone Books.

44.

Kwan

(2002) Feminist visualization: Re-envisioning GIS as a method in feminist geographic research. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 92(4): 645–661.

45.

Law

(2004) After Method: Mess in Social Science Research. New York: Routledge.

46.

Leszczynski

Elwood

(2015) Feminist geographies of new spatial media. The Canadian Geographer 59(1): 12–28.

47.

McLafferty

(2005) Women and GIS: Geospatial technologies and feminist geographies. Cartographica 40(4): 37–45.

48.

Marhia

(2013) Some humans are more human than others: Troubling the ‘human’ in human security from a critical feminist perspective. Security Dialogue 44(1): 19–35.

49.

Merry

(2003) Constructing a global law: Violence against women and the human rights system. Law & Social Inquiry 28(4): 941–977.

50.

Muller

(2008) Securing the political imagination: Popular culture, the security dispositif and the biometric state. Security Dialogue 39(2–3): 199–220.

51.

Nijel.org (2014) Your data, transformed. Available at: http://nijel.org/why-nijel/transformed (accessed 3 May 2014).

52.

Ó Tuathail

(2004) Geopolitical structures and cultures: Towards conceptual clarity in the critical study of geopolitics. In: Tchantouridze

(ed.) Geopolitics: Global Problems, Regional Concerns. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 75–102.

53.

Open Institute for Gender Based Violence in Cambodia (2014) Gender Based Violence (GBV) project in Cambodia. Available at: http://www.open.org.kh/en/gender-based-violence-gbv-project#.U2X1s8ZSy2w (accessed 3 May 2014).

54.

Osborne

Rose

(2004) Spatial phenomenotechnics: Making space with Charles Booth and Patrick Geddes. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 22(2): 209–228.

55.

Parks

(2009) Digging into Google Earth: An analysis of ‘crisis in Darfur’. Geoforum 40(4): 535–545.

56.

Puar

(2007) Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

57.

Radcliffe

(2009) National maps, digitalization and neoliberal cartographies: Transforming nation-state practices and symbols in postcolonial Ecuador. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 34(4): 426–444.

58.

Rissman

(2014) Interview: HarassMap founder Rebecca Chiao. Openideo, 25 February. Available at: http://www.openideo.com/challenge/womens-safety/research/interview-HarassMap-founder-rebecca-ch (accessed 3 May 2014).

59.

Rose

(1997) Situating knowledges: Positionality, reflexivities and other tactics. Progress in Human Geography 21(3): 305–320.

60.

Scott

(2010) Foreword: Making data speak. In: Wilkins

(ed.) Distributed Urbanism: Cities after Google Earth. Abingdon: Routledge, xi–xiv.

61.

Shibib

(2011) Interview with Rebecca Chiao: Breaking women’s isolation with HarassMap. Qantara.de. Available at: http://en.qantara.de/content/interview-with-rebecca-chiao-breaking-womens-isolation-with-HarassMap (accessed 3 May 2014).

62.

Slackman

(2005) ‘Assault on women at protest stirs anger, not fear, in Egypt.’ New York Times, 10 June. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/10/international/africa/10egypt.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 (accessed 29 September 2014).

63.

Sparke

(2006) A neoliberal nexus: Citizenship, security and the future of the border. Political Geography 25(2): 151–180.

64.

Stahl

(2010) Becoming bombs: 3D animated satellite imagery and the weaponization of the civic eye. Media Tropes 2(2): 65–93.

65.

Tavaana.org (2013). Taking back Egypt’s streets: The HarassMap campaign to end sexual harassment. Available at: https://tavaana.org/en/content/taking-back-egypts-streets-harassmap-campaign-end-sexual-harassment#_edn12 (accessed 3 May 2014).

66.

TED Talk with Erik Hersman (2009) Reporting crisis via texting. Available at: http://www.ted.com/talks/erik_hersman_on_reporting_crisis_via_texting (accessed 3 May 2014).

67.

Tillet

(2013) Sexual harassment is not a disease, but it surely is an epidemic. The Nation, 30 July. Available at: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/salamishah-tillet (accessed 11 May 2014).

68.

United Nations (2011) Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space: Space-based Information for Crowdsource Mapping. General Assembly, 6 December 2011, Resolution 61/110.

69.

United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER) (2014). Available at: http://www.un-spider.org (accessed 3 May 2014).

70.

Ushahidi.org (2014) About Us. Available at: http://ushahidi.com (accessed 3 May 2014).

71.

Wall

Monahan

(2011) Surveillance and violence from afar: The politics of drones and liminal security-scapes. Theoretical Criminology 15(3): 239–254.

72.

Weizman

(2002) Introduction to the politics of verticality. Open Democracy. Available at: http://www.opendemocracy.net/ecology-politicsverticality/article_801.jsp (accessed 3 May 2014).

73.

Wibben

(2011) The state of feminist security studies: A conversation. Politics and Gender 7(4): 590–595.

74.

Williams

(2007) Hakumat al Tayarrat: The role of air power in the enforcement of Iraq’s boundaries. Geopolitics 12(3): 505–528.

75.

Williams

(2011) Enabling persistent presence? Performing the embodied geopolitics of the unmanned aerial vehicle assemblage. Political Geography 30(7): 381–390.

76.

Williams

(2005) Politics and self in the age of digital re(pro)ducibility. Fast Capitalism 1(1). Available at: http://www.uta.edu/huma/agger/fastcapitalism/1_1/williams.html (accessed 17 January 2015).

77.

Women’s Media Center’s Women Under Siege (2014) Documenting sexualized violence in Syria. Available at: https://womenundersiegesyria.crowdmap.com (accessed 3 May 2014).

78.

Zehfuss

(2011) Targeting: Precision and the production of ethics. European Journal of International Relations 17(3): 543–566.

79.

Zook

Graham

Shelton

(2010) Volunteered geographic information and crowdsourcing disaster relief: A case study of the Haitian earthquake. World Health and Medical Policy 2(2): 7–33.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

The cartographic ambiguities of HarassMap: Crowdmapping security and sexual violence in Egypt

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References

Supplementary Material