A PROPOSAL FOR A DIALOGUE BETWEEN DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY AND CRITICAL CARTOGRAPHY

Abstract

In recent years, many investigations in the field of developmental psychology have tried to explain the way that children build their spatial thinking. This article intends to show that such a research programme can be more complex if we consider that the meaning of maps arises from the interrelation between values and social beliefs that are produced and transmitted. To this end, we consider contributions from critical studies made within the field of the history of cartography. Collaboration among different disciplines, more specifically between a constructivist developmental psychology connected to the beliefs of social groups and a critical cartography that has integrated maps with the social rules and values of the social tradition they are taken from, are considered.

DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY; COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT; CARTOGRAPHY; STORY