Corner’s “The Agency of Mapping” relocates mapping from representation to invention. Its iconic idea is that maps do not merely mirror territories; they construct, uncover and project latent spatial possibilities. Against the view of mapping as either neutral measurement or imperial technocracy, Corner insists on its speculative and operative power. The theoretical contribution is to reconceive mapping as an enabling practice capable of critique and world-making, where the map becomes an active agent in the transformation of lived space. Methodologically, the essay develops a design-theoretical reading of mapping through concepts such as finding, founding, extracting, plotting and projecting. Its conceptual operation is projective cartography: the map is treated as a device that reveals hidden conditions while generating new spatial imaginaries. The bridge to the wider field is decisive for landscape urbanism, critical cartography, architecture and planning theory, where mapping becomes neither illustration nor evidence alone, but a mode of spatial production.
