The need for disciplinarity, interdisciplinarity and scientific societies - the cartographic perspective

Abstract

Do we still need Cartography? Do we still need a cartographic society? These questions, which can also be transferred to other disciplines, are answered from disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives – which creates an ideal connection to the networked and interdisciplinary thinking of Gottfried Konecny. The need for Cartography as a discipline is discussed based on a view on historic, current and future functions of maps and changing research and development requirements. With respect to interdisciplinarity, Cartography shows connections to various domains while more and more relationships with young areas from the field of Computer Science are developing. With regard to cartographic societies, their central role and importance as networking platforms are emphasized. Nevertheless, geographical and thematic granularities of societies as well as networking formats (including online versions) need to be evaluated and further developed on a constant basis.