Cities, towns, and states depend on geographic inquiry to understand not only where people live, but how they live: what they do for work, how much money they earn, and identity characteristics like race, gender, and sexuality. How did computer-assisted mapping change this process?
Throughout the 1970s, U.S. government agencies took an active role in designing and deploying more sophisticated and less expensive computer-assisted mapmaking tools. By understanding how people’s lives are geographically organized—in other words, by mapping them—government agencies are able to identify patterns and measure where resources should be allocated. At the same time, any project that counts people runs the risk of reducing them into mere numbers, forgetting their social context and shared histories. From Boston to Milwaukee, the maps in this section highlight the promises and pitfalls of quantifying people.