Mapping and the colonization of the lifeworld

Many critical theorists from the Frankfurt School onward have echoed Weber’s argument that the development of modern capitalism has been tied to the development of an instrumental rationality in human relations and communication. This view asserts that thinking, planning and action have become more focussed on the most efficient means to achieve a specific end, with little critical reflection on the end itself, or the context in which that end is embedded. In this regard, maps are perhaps the most powerful and pervasive tool of instrumental rationality.