"Maps articulate statements that are shaped by social relations, discourses and practices, but these statements also influence them in turn. Hence, maps (and atlases) are always political. "In this interplay between facts and perception, the cartographer is both witness and actor. [...] In order to create, or, more accurately: to invent, "his worlds", he finally arrives at a subtle mixture of the world as it is, and the world he desires" (Rekacewicz 2006). Thus, many of the maps presented in this volume are full of "ifs", "buts" and question marks but also of desired worlds."
(from the Editorial)