Duncan Fuller's presentation in Mapping for Sustainable Communities, UCL, 17th June '08

1. Participation
and participatory mapping
Dr Duncan Fuller
Northumbria University

2. Maps are pictures
Maps are self-portraits
Maps are manifestations of perceptions
Maps are portraits of the world in the manner
in which those preparing them would like
the world to be understood
Maps are subjective
Mapping is...an act of power.
(Sen, 2007: 13)

7. •Ephemeral mapping
•Sketch mapping
•Scale mapping
•3D modelling
•Photomaps
•Global Positioning Systems (GPS)
•Map-linked multimedia information
systems
•GIS

14. •The need to recognise and work with the
knowledge and experience of local people
(including in planning the ‘research’ phase of
any work from the outset) and to have respect
for local perceptions and choices in choosing
how they represent their own worlds
•To have regard for local people as the main
subjects rather than objects of research using
an interactive rather than an extractive
approach to information gathering
•To emphasise that such mapping should be
empowering, should lead to action, especially
collective action, to help people to change their
lives according to their own ideas.

15. •To recognise at the outset the importance of
existing power relations in disadvantaging certain
groups and individuals within mapping processes
per se;
•To focus on obtaining in depth information, that is
verified and 'triangulated' locally to ensure
reliability;
•To be creative, and ensure the process is both
enjoyable and enlightening
•To mix a variety of techniques and approaches to
uncovering information that include as diverse a
participant range as possible including, if not
prioritising those deemed to be 'hard to reach'), not
least in verifying each stage of the process by using
a variety of methods to elicit the same information.

16. •To emphasize the need for participants to learn
from their engagement in the process; everyone
should accept that they have something to learn
from the process.
•To feed-back through a recognition that
information elicited by the research process
belongs to local people, which is then made more
'visible' and given validity through the research
process, thereby promoting inter-group/sectoral
dialogue and co-operation (Inglis, 1995).

17. •To focus on the application of the research
for future improvements;
•To facilitate social change through the
effective involvement of disadvantaged people
in the social and political processes of
mapping.
•To enable process members to reflect on the
processes of mapping, and facilitate changes
in those processes through their involvement

20. •a result of a merger between Participatory
Learning and Action (PLA) methods with
Geographic Information Technologies
(GIT)…
•representation of local people’s spatial
knowledge…
•facilitate decision-making processes, as
well as support communication and
community advocacy….
•tailored, demand-driven and user-friendly
applications of these geospatial
technologies…
•Flexible…

21. •adapts to different socio-cultural and
biophysical environments…
•combination of ‘expert’ skills with local
knowledge(Ed- ‘?’)
•Control…
•Access…
•use of culturally sensitive spatial data in
the hands of those communities who
generated it’…
•profound implications for marginalised
groups…

22. •it can enhance capacity in
generating, managing and
communicating spatial information;
•it can stimulate innovation; and
ultimately,
•it can encourage positive social
change…

26. Good PGIS practice –
•careful,
•user-driven/user-centred,
•ethically conscious.
•community takes as high as
possible a degree of control over
decision making processes,
managerial power and responsibility
•during all the different stages
involved.

27. Transparency –
•clarity,
•accountability,
•the use of simple and
understandable language,
•and transparent procedures such as
open meetings. It respects
•engaging
•Informed

28. Time –
•meaningful relationships between
technology intermediaries and
recipient communities.
•maximise the positive impacts
•enable local communities to take
ownership
•substantial investment of time.
•disempower …

29. Trust –
•critical ingredient
•trust makes life predictable,
•it creates a sense of community,
•makes it easier for people to work
together.
•exert a discipline on practitioners.
•Without the appropriate behaviour
and attitudes for developing this
trust, PGIS practice is difficult
indeed.

30. ‘Transparency’ and ‘Time’ being
prerequisites for establishing
Trust…

34. Empowerment –
•leads to action…
•helps people to change their lives according to
their own ideas…;
Continuous learning –
•all participants learn…
•everyone has something to learn from the
process…;
Reflection –
•self-critical reflection…
•acknowledge the expert knowledge of other
participants…
•expect to learn from other participants…

35. Inclusion –
•makes it easier for a wide range of people to take
part and make their views heard…
•actively attempting to include…
•seek out people who are often ignored…
•paying attention to differences…
•not trying to homogenise different opinions and
points of view…;
Challenging established beliefs and power –
•existing power relations in disadvantaging certain
groups and individuals…
•effective involvement of disadvantaged people…;
and
Reliability and ethical practice.

43. •we must recognise the extractive nature of
much ‘traditional’ research;
•we must be aware of the epistemic violence
(Code, 2006) that can result from
thoughtless, self-centred research
engagements with publics;
•we must show greater commitment to
social transformation with committed
research;
•with must develop solidarity with oppressed
others in determining communally beneficial
research agendas for social change;

44. •we must challenge power relations through
our research interactions;
•we must build emotional connections with
‘the researched’ through our investigative
endeavours; and
•we must develop prefigurative actions to
ensure, alongside these other elements, the
furtherance of meaningful, mutual ‘research’
engagements with those beyond the
academy (see Chatterton et al, 2007).

48. •wear their politics on their sleeve…
•politically engaged…
•subverts conventional notions of order to
actively promote social change…
•to envisage and engender participatory
mapping for social change...
•‘tactical cartographies’ …
•confront power, promote social justice and
are intended to have operational value…

49. •‘community’ can be preserved by mapping,
•mapping can lead to the gaining of a sense of
place,
•mapping can challenge cities perceptions of
themselves
•maps are instruments of power, tools of
liberation as much as exploitation,
•‘reconstructive visionning’,
•visibility, control, power-to…
•discourses of mapping;
•the taken for grantedness of maps,