Galen J. Maclaurin

Methodology Presentation Class Wiki

Geography 5161

Professor Foote

February 16, 2009

Participatory Mapping

Participatory Research

Public Participatory GIS

Counter Mapping

Resistance Mapping

CollaborativeResearch

Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA)

Participatory Urban Appraisal (PUA)

Cartographic-legalstrategy

CommunityMapping Participatory Spatial

Methodologies

Presentation Roadmap

Participant observation:

Researcher interprets and analyzes information

Outsider as the mental filter for what is relevant, important and insignificant

Collaborative research:

Working with local people ultimately for their benefit

Rarely involves local people in data collection and interpretation

Participatory Research:

Researcher bridges a role between observer and facilitator

Shift away from a positivist research paradigm of university-based scholars: A move to

break the researcher-researched, subject-object dichotomy of knowledge production.

Alternative way to collect scientific information that decentralizes the process and shifts

the ownership of the project from the researcher to the local people.

( M E TH O D S )

ObserverParticipant Observation

(Objectivity and Validation)

FacilitatorCollaborative Research(Humanistic concerns)

Participatory Research

Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA)

GeographicInformation Systems

(GIS)

Public ParticipatoryGIS (PPGIS)

ParticipatoryMapping

SeasonalCalendars

Semi-structuredInterviews

AnalyticalDiagramming

Other PRAMethods

Rapid Rural Appraisal

Activist Part. ResearchApplied

AnthropologyAgroecosystem

Analysis

Transect walks

Sketch maps

Overlay mapsComputer-basedmaps

Mental maps CurrentResearch

&Ethical

Concerns

Conceptual diagrams to understand participation in research

Participatory Methodologies

Research without a participatory focus

Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA)

PRA methods are mostly visual, verbal and kinesthetic Participatory mapping is not exclusively used in PRA methodologies, nor was it

pioneered in PRA. Participatory mapping techniques and applications are found in the research of many fields; however, the literature is more extensive in PRA.

I will present five methodological categories commonly found in the participatory mapping literature: sketch maps, mental maps, transect walks, overlay mapping and computer-based mapping. This list is not exhaustive; there are other methods described as participatory mapping.

Sketch maps

Sketch maps can be drawn individually or in groups by participants. They are useful for

exploratory purposes, identifying opportunities or vulnerabilities. Here is an example of

a paper map and a ground map. See Chambers (2006) for a good comparison of paper

versus ground sketch maps.

Source: Puginier 2001Source: Mather 2000, 160

Mental maps

This mental map was drawn by a nine year old girl in Toronto, Canada showing how she perceives her play area. She lived in a low rise, or rather not a high rise, apartment building.

Source: Bunge, W.W. and R. Borbessa 1975, 81

This mental map shows the play area of a nine year old girl living in a high rise apartment building in the same part of Toronto.

Source: Bunge, W.W. and R. Borbessa 1975, 83

This is an example of a mental map drawn by a researcher after conducting interviews with groups of people from different socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds. The author tried to summarize how well each of these groups could identify certain geographic features and locations surrounding them in Los Angeles. The map on the left is based on interviews conducted with middle class white individuals, the top right with lower class African American individuals and the lower right with Hispanic Spanish speaking individuals.

Maps can be drawn by participants or researchers. In participatory mapping, mental maps are different from sketch maps in that they help us understand perceptions where as sketch maps more useful as a means of community survey, description and exploration. Mental maps can be useful to explore spatial perceptions but they should

Source: Gould and White 1986, 18-19

not be used to make generalizations or conclusions about larger groups represented by participants.

Transect walks

Transect walks can serve many purposes; this can be a participatory method for data collection, community surveying and ground truthing. This activity helps to understand the cultural significance of features being mapped, as well as orienting the researcher in the community and building relationships with community members.

Example of a transect walk: This image was drawn from a transect walk in Camaroon where the project focused on the agricultural characteristics of the land surrounding the community

Source: Vito 2002, Chapter 5

Overlay mapping

Overlay maps or base maps can be drawn individually or in groups by participants using

photo maps (1:5000; 1:20,000), topographic maps or specially prepared base maps.

Participants can draw on transparent plastic overlays or directly on the maps.

o Useful for collecting qualitative or quantitative spatial data.

o Problems with readily available data and geographic information, under-mapped

areas, representations of power in existing maps and data sets. This is one reason

why photo maps are preferred.

Source: Mather 2000, 158

o Aerial photographs are usually easier for people to use who are not familiar with

maps.

Computer-based mapping

Computer-based maps: Approaches that use technologies such as GIS, GPS and

computer to create maps. Raises many issues of participation, empowerment and

disempowerment. More of a focus in PPGIS. Critical issues include:

Source: Dana 2008, 515

o Differential access to data, technology, training and equipment.

o Differential amounts of participation among community member; exclusion of

certain groups.

o Problems with data and geographic information, like above.

Example of a participatory mapping process from Buzi, Mozambique

The following images come from a mapping project that addressed vulnerability to flooding and drought in rural communities of the Buzi region of Mozambique (Kienberger 2008). These images come from one of the communities that participated. For further information regarding this project, see the link I have provided in my bibliography. I chose to present this project because it integrates many of the participatory methods being discussed.

Sketch map

Participatory data collection

Source: Kienberger 2008, 5

Source: Kienberger 2008, 18

Source: Kienberger 2008, 21

The image above is an example of analytical diagramming used to summarize the data collection process where community members ranked each of these threats to their community. The blue represents vulnerabilities to flood and the amber to drought. Community members weighted the severity of each of these by marking each piece of paper with seeds, as seen in the photograph.

These photographs were taken during participatory mapping activities. This is essentially overlay mapping; they are defining the spatial distribution of the vulnerabilities identified in the previous activity, by drawing on paper maps with chalk.

Source: Kienberger 2008, 10

Computer generated map of results

This map was created by the researcher and given to the community for negotiation meetings with the state to address these issues of vulnerability. In this project, community members facilitated most of the data collection and interpretation process; however, I do not think community members were trained in GIS in order to prepare such maps on their own. It was probably out of the scope of the project and not feasible based on the technology available to the community.

Source: Kienberger 2008, 22

Conclusion

Sources

Bunge, W.W. and R. Bordessa. 1975. The canadian alternative: Survival, expeditions and urban change. Toronto: Geographical Monographs.

Chambers, R. 1994. The origins and practice of participatory rural appraisal. World Development 22, no. 7: 953-969.

Cistulli, Vito. 2002. Environment in decentralized development : Economic and institutional issues. Training materials for agricultural planning, 44. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Dana, Peter H. 2008. Surveys of people and place. In The handbook of geographic information science, ed. John P. Wilson and A. Stewart Fotheringham:494-518. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Gould, P and R White. 1986. Mental maps. Boston: Allen & Unwin.

Kienberger, Stefan. 2008. Vulnerability Assessment - GIScience and Remote Sensing. http://projects.stefankienberger.at/vulmoz (accessed February 12, 2009).

Mather, Richard A. 2000. Using photomaps to support participatory processes of community forestry in the middle hills of nepal. Mountain Research and Development 20, no. 2: 154-161.

Puginier, Oliver. 2001. Can Participatory Land Use Planning at Community Level in the Highlands of Northern Thailand Use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) As a Communication Tool? [S.l.]: Participatory Avenues, IAPAD. http://www.iapad.org/participatory%5Flanduse%5Fplanning%5Fin%5Fnorthern%5Fthailand.htm (accessed February 12, 2009).

Recommended Readings:

Chambers, Robert. 1994. The origins and practice of participatory rural appraisal. World Development 22, no. 7: 953-969.

Chambers, Robert. 2006. Participatory mapping and geographic information systems: Whose map? Who is empowered and who disempowered? Who gains and who loses? Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries 25, no. 2: 1-11.

Chapin, Mac, Zachary Lamb, and Bill Threlkeld. 2005. Mapping indigenous lands. Annual Review of Anthropology 34: 619-638.

Kwaku Kyem, Peter A. 2001. Power, participation, and inflexible institutions: An examination of the challenges to community empowerment in participatory gis applications. In Cartographica, 38:5-17: University of Toronto Press.

Nietschmann, Bernard. 1995. Defending the miskito reefs with maps and gps: Mapping with sail, scuba, and satellite. Cultural Survival Quarterly 18, no. 4: 34-38.

Wainwright, Joel and Joe Bryan. 2009. Cartography, territory, property: Postcolonial reflections on indigenous counter-mapping in nicaragua and belize. Cultural Geographies 16: 153-177.

“As much as guns and warships, maps have been the weapons of imperialism.” J.B. Harley

“More indigenous territory can be reclaimed and defended by maps than by guns.”

Bernard Nietschmann