The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics to Generate New Spatial Imaginaries

Although not typically thought of as useful or relevant to social theory, this chapter proposes that mathematical ideas and tools can be used to generate new spatial imaginaries about the world, that is, new ways of imaging the relations that pertain to existence (who we are, as people, collectives, and societies) and to experience. I will describe some existing spatial imaginaries (for example: that the world is made of distinct parts) and draw on gender and race scholars to show how they function to maintain various forms of oppression. I also consider several examples of mathematical ideas and tools that trouble or transform normative relations in order to produce new ones – in particular, new spatial imaginaries for disrupting systems of oppression.