Free the Map. From Atlas to Hermes, towards a new cartography of borders and migration

We are pleased to have Prof dr Henk van Houtum (Nijmegen Centre for Border Research, Radboud University) present his new book Free the Map. From Atlas to Hermes, towards a new cartography of borders and migration at our next seminar. His talk will be followed by comments from ACBS network convenor Dr Andrew Burridge (Macquarie University).

Abstract

A world map is a visual story that aims to represent a perspective of reality. One would then expect multiple visual narratives depicting the various aspects, actors, and perspectives that shape this socio-spatial world. However, since the 16th century, the standard atlas—conceived by Gerardus Mercator in the colonial era—has dominantly told only one visual story: the story of territorial annexation, of which state governs where. Still today, a world map typically depicts people as distinct, homogeneous groups, confined within national borders represented as thin, continuous lines. The colonial mindset of autocratic leaders like Putin, Netanyahu, and Trump is therefore not an anomaly—it is rooted in the surreal belief, reinforced by standard cartography, that states would be independent, sealed-off entities and that the world would be a game of territorial conquest. Migration, in turn, is portrayed as an abnormality invading these bordered boxes, often represented by oversized, red arrows—the language of a hostile invasion (see also our article: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17450101.2019.1676031).

Absent are relational geographical realities, demographic diversity, human interactions and experiences, colonial legacies, the predatory interests of capitalism, and international interdependencies. This cartography of borders and migration fundamentally misrepresents everything we know from critical border and migration studies. It is a form of visual storytelling that claims objectivity and neutrality yet merely reinforces inherent nativist and nationalist power interests: ‘us here’ versus ‘them there’.

Ceci n’est pas le monde—this is not the world.

In this lecture, based on my recently published book Free the Map: From Atlas to Hermes. A New Cartography of Borders and Migration (2024) (https://www.nai010.com/en/product/free-the-map/), I will first unravel the impact of this hegemonic state-centric cartography on our understanding of borders and migration. Then, I will present an overview of existing alternative cartographic representations that powerfully and convincingly humanize and mobilize the map, which I categorize as counter-mapping, experience-mapping, and connectivity-mapping. These approaches not only challenge the notion of borders as mere lines and migration as unidirectional arrows but also map human experiences, discriminatory (in)hospitalities, relationships, and connections.

It is time for a breakthrough in media, education, and politics—one that fosters inclusive and decisively more honest, humane geographic imaginaries, acknowledging how deeply interconnected and interdependent we are as a world: Free the Map!

BIO

Prof dr Henk van Houtum is Professor of Geopolitics and Political Geography at Radboud University Nijmegen and head of the Nijmegen Centre for Border Research. He writes and teaches on the cartography and geopolitics of borders, bordering, and migration. For more info: www.henkvanhoutum.nl

Selected recent publications

• Van Asseldonk, M. and H. van Houtum (2025), We have never owned ‘’Us’’: A philosophical critique of nationalist b/ordering and othering ideologies, Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/23996544251319637

•Bueno Lacy, R., & van Houtum, H. (2024). Europe’s spectacular borderlines: on refugee camps, banlieues and other spaces of exception. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 47(12), 2652–2674. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2024.2344685

•Osso, B. N., & van Houtum, H. (2024). ‘Now You See Me’: Refugees Looking Back at the EU’s Border Camp Watch in Lesvos. Geopolitics, 1–30. https://doi.org/10.1080/14650045.2024.2382469

•Winkelmolen, L., Garidou, P. T., & van Houtum, H. (2024). Waiting for Today’s Barbarians: How the Fall of the Roman Empire Is Anachronistically Exploited to Serve a Contemporary Discriminatory B/Ordering and Othering Agenda. Journal of Borderlands Studies, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/08865655.2024.2330067

•Houtum, H.J. van & Uden, A.M. van (2021), The birth of the paper prison. The global inequality trap of visa borders, Environment and Planning C; https://henkvanhoutum.nl/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/2021-Rethinking-biopolitcs-pagina-20-23_pages.pdf

•Houtum H.J. (2021), Beyond Borderism: Overcoming discriminative B/ordering and Othering, TESG https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/tesg.12473

•Houtum, H.J. van & Bueno Lacy, R. (2020). The Autoimmunity of the EU's Deadly B/ordering Regime; Overcoming its Paradoxical Paper, Iron and Camp Borders. Geopolitics, 25(3), 706-733 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14650045.2020.1728743

•Houtum H. van and R. Bueno Lacy (2020), The migration map trap, on the invasion arrows in the cartography of migration, Mobilities, Vol. 15, No. 2, 196–219

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17450101.2019.1676031

Contact the host of Free the Map. From Atlas to Hermes, towards a new cartography of borders and migration