{"id":32,"date":"2025-01-01T21:00:03","date_gmt":"2025-01-02T04:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mulmod\/?p=32"},"modified":"2025-07-02T16:19:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T23:19:17","slug":"chapter-3-ethnographic-mapping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mulmod\/2025\/01\/01\/chapter-3-ethnographic-mapping\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 3. Ethnographic Mapping"},"content":{"rendered":"

Image: “Assembly of Challenger relief map of British Columbia in P.N.E. B.C. Building” by City of Vancouver Archives, via flickr<\/a>, licensed under CC BY 2.0<\/a><\/p>\n

At a glance…<\/h5>\n

While maps seek to represent space, they inevitably simplify, exclude, and naturalize particular spatial narratives. Traditions of counter-mapping and critical cartography expose how mapping practices reflect and reproduce power relations, often reinforcing colonial and state imaginaries. Ethnographic mapping, by contrast, centers participants\u2019 lived spatial experiences and relational understandings of place. In the hands of ethnographers, mapping becomes both a methodological tool and a mode of critique or activism. Participatory, community-driven approaches treat maps not as neutral data displays, but as co-produced representations shaped by context, meaning, and movement.<\/p>\n

Learning objectives…<\/h5>\n

By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Critically analyze the representational limits of conventional maps<\/strong>, recognizing how cartographic practices can reproduce dominant spatial narratives and naturalize power relations.<\/li>\n
  2. Explain how mapping practices have historically been implicated in colonial, state, and extractive projects<\/strong>, and how alternative cartographic practices challenge these histories.<\/li>\n
  3. Evaluate the potential of ethnographic mapping as a participatory and community-centered method<\/strong>, capable of capturing lived experience, relational space, and situated knowledge.<\/li>\n
  4. Identify key ethical and methodological considerations in participatory mapping projects<\/strong>, including power dynamics, authorship, and representation.<\/li>\n
  5. Apply ethnographic mapping techniques in a practical context<\/strong>, using tools such as building plans, transect walks, or participatory annotation to explore how people engage with and make meaning of space.<\/li>\n
  6. Discuss how ethnographic mapping can function as a tool for advocacy, empowerment, and social change<\/strong>, particularly for marginalized communities.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    In this chapter…<\/h5>\n

    3.1. Introduction: The paradox of maps<\/a>
    \n    3.2. Ethnographic maps: Some considerations<\/a>
    \n    3.3. Learning activities<\/a>
    \n    3.4. Showcase<\/a>
    \n    3.5. Insight from experts: Mapping worlds<\/a>
    \n    3.6. Suggested readings<\/a>
    \n    3.7. Other resources<\/a>
    \n    3.8. Creating heatmaps in Tableau<\/a>
    \n    3.9. Works cited<\/a><\/p>\n

    3.1. Introduction: The paradox of maps<\/h2>\n

    Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, in his short story On Exactitude in Science<\/em>, captures the paradox at the heart of all mapping practices:<\/p>\n

    \u2026In that Empire, the Art of Cartography attained such Perfection that the map of a single Province occupied the entirety of a City, and the map of the Empire, the entirety of a Province. In time, those Unconscionable Maps no longer satisfied, and the Cartographers Guilds struck a Map of the Empire whose size was that of the Empire, and which coincided point for point with it. The following Generations, who were not so fond of the Study of Cartography as their Forebears had been, saw that that vast Map was Useless, and not without some Pitilessness was it, that they delivered it up to the Inclemencies of Sun and Winters. In the Deserts of the West, still today, there are Tattered Ruins of that Map, inhabited by Animals and Beggars; in all the Land there is no other Relic of the Disciplines of Geography.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

    \u2014Suarez Miranda,Viajes de varones prudentes, Libro IV,Cap. XLV, Lerida, 1658\u00a0<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    This story reminds us that all maps are, by necessity, reductions. While we may strive for detail and accuracy, a map that mirrors reality too precisely becomes functionally useless. Yet the imperfections and omissions in a map are never neutral. Decisions about what to include, what to exclude, and how to represent space reflect particular histories, epistemologies, and power relations.\u00a0Therefore, it is important to carefully examine maps to learn what histories have been excluded from the representation and what labels, toponyms, and borders have been portrayed as natural, static, immutable, and simply cartographical facts<\/em>. We must be mindful of the consequences of these omissions and naturalizations that are used in dominant mapping practices through which \u201cgeographical knowledge continues to be produced, acquired and imposed as a fundamental technique of shoring up dominant conceptualizations of [\u2026] landscape\u201d\u00a0 (Hunt and Stevenson 2017, 374).<\/p>\n

    A critical approach to mapping\u2014often called counter-mapping\u2014challenges the presumed neutrality of conventional cartography. Counter-mapping seeks to expose the omissions and silences in dominant spatial narratives and to assert alternative, often decolonial, geographies (Hunt and Stevenson 2017, 373). In this view, maps are not objective containers of information, but contested texts shaped by social, cultural, and political forces.<\/p>\n

    As Tucker and Rose-Redwood (2015, 197) remind us, maps and their constituent features, including place names, are \u201calways-already power laden\u201d and emerge through historically situated struggles over meaning and representation. Like other texts, they can be analyzed for their voices and absences, purposes and audiences, and their capacity to be reinterpreted or reclaimed (Bryan & Wood 2015).<\/p>\n

    This chapter introduces ethnographic mapping as a set of practices that foreground the spatial, social, and organizational dimensions of field sites. Unlike top-down cartographic representations, ethnographic maps are grounded in the everyday practices, relationships, and movements of participants.<\/p>\n

    Back to Table of Contents<\/a><\/p>\n

    3.2. Ethnographic maps: some considerations<\/h2>\n
    \"\"
    Digital map of East Salford with transposing depictions of memories of the area. From the MediaCityUK Exhibition at the University of Salford. Source<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    Maps have been a part of ethnographic fieldwork since the early development of the discipline. In Argonauts of the Western Pacific<\/em>, Malinowski (2014[1922], 49) emphasized \u201cextensive maps, plans and diagrams\u201d as among the \u201cmore fundamental documents of ethnographic research,\u201d using them to record land ownership, hunting and fishing rights, and other territorial arrangements.<\/p>\n

    Despite this early adoption, anthropological engagement with maps remained largely uncritical for much of the twentieth century. The representational and political dimensions of cartography\u2014especially its entanglements with colonial and state power\u2014were often overlooked. (for an exception, look at Pulla (2016) for a brief history of \u201ccounter-mapping as an applied practice within anthropology\u201d through the anthropological work of Frank Speck, a student of Franz Boas, on the family hunting territory in early 1900s.)<\/p>\n

    If used critically and responsibly, maps can help us in our ethnographic research, not only as a method of collecting data or representing the findings of our research, but also as an often participatory methodological tool and a means for activism.<\/p>\n

    When used critically, however, mapping can be more than a method of documenting spatial information. It can also serve as a participatory methodological tool, a medium for collaborative knowledge production, and an instrument of resistance. As Powell (2010, 553) observes, maps reveal the mutual constitution of self and place, drawing attention to how identity is shaped by physical, historical, and symbolic landscapes. Mapping, when approached reflexively, highlights how spatial relations are experienced, interpreted, and contested by those within them.<\/p>\n

    In this context, ethnographic mapping\u2014particularly its critical and counter-mapping variants\u2014offers a means of representing space not from a detached, top-down perspective, but through the situated experiences and knowledge of participants. It aligns with methodological commitments to collaboration, reflexivity, and accountability. As such, it invites ethnographers to attend to the following considerations:<\/p>\n

    Power and Representation<\/h5>\n

    Maps are never neutral representations of space. They are shaped by the epistemologies, priorities, and positionalities of those who create them. As critical cartographers have argued, cartographic practices have historically been used to justify territorial control, support colonial expansion, and institutionalize dominant understandings of geography. The authority of the map often lies in its appearance of objectivity\u2014even when it obscures histories of dispossession or violence.<\/p>\n

    For example, government-issued cadastral maps that delineate property lines often reflect settler-colonial frameworks that erase Indigenous land claims and spatial practices. Similarly, urban development maps may ignore or misrepresent informal settlements, rendering certain communities effectively invisible in planning processes.<\/p>\n

    In ethnographic research, counter-mapping can expose these dynamics by visualizing alternative spatial narratives. For instance, Indigenous communities in the Philippines have used counter-maps to assert ancestral domain claims in the face of mining encroachments (Peluso 1995). These maps document not only territory but also relationships to land, seasonal cycles, and spiritual geographies, challenging dominant cartographic paradigms rooted in extractive governance.<\/p>\n

    Community-Centered Knowledge<\/h5>\n

    Ethnographic mapping should begin not with the researcher\u2019s categories, but with the spatial knowledge and concerns of the communities involved. This means reorienting mapping away from extraction and toward mutual learning. It requires asking: What spatial relations matter to the community? What boundaries, flows, or territories are meaningful to them? What stories do they associate with particular places?<\/p>\n

    For example, in participatory projects with unhoused communities, researchers and advocates have co-created maps that document critical spatial knowledge\u2014such as locations of shelter access, public washrooms, food distribution, and areas of frequent police surveillance. One such project, \u201cMapping the Margins\u201d<\/em> in Los Angeles, worked with unhoused individuals to identify areas of vulnerability and resilience, producing visualizations that informed local policy and supported grassroots advocacy (Cope & Elwood 2009).<\/p>\n

    By prioritizing community-centered mapping, ethnographers validate forms of expertise that are often dismissed by formal cartographic systems. This practice shifts mapping from a mode of observation to a mode of recognition and co-authorship.<\/p>\n

    Participatory Method<\/h5>\n

    A participatory approach to mapping entails the active involvement of community members throughout the research process\u2014from defining what should be mapped to deciding how it should be represented. This approach is not simply about including participants but about redistributing authority over the research process.<\/p>\n

    Participatory mapping techniques may include community-led sketch mapping, collaborative use of GIS technologies, and mapping walks (also called \u201ctransect walks\u201d) where participants guide the researcher through spatially significant routes. For example, in participatory health research, residents of Nairobi\u2019s informal settlements have mapped environmental hazards such as waste accumulation and open sewers\u2014information that was then used to advocate for infrastructural change (Corburn & Karanja 2014).<\/p>\n

    These methods foster deeper engagement, ensure greater accuracy in representation, and enable the map to serve not just academic purposes but community goals.<\/p>\n

    Alternative Cartographic Forms<\/h5>\n

    For example, Yolngu Aboriginal people in Australia have produced bark paintings<\/a> that convey geographic knowledge, land ownership, and ancestral narratives simultaneously\u2014maps that cannot be reduced to a Cartesian coordinate system but are rich in cosmological and relational meaning. We can also consider “emotional mapping” to visualize differently (e.g., through marks in public spaces) feelings and relationships in urban space, representing safety, discomfort, or desire alongside physical landmarks.<\/p>\n

    These approaches challenge the notion that maps must be spatially precise in a Euclidean sense and instead treat mapping as a representational and affective practice.<\/p>\n

    Mapping for Empowerment and Activism<\/h5>\n

    Ethnographic maps can also function as tools of resistance, self-determination, and political mobilization. When co-created with communities, maps can help visualize marginalization, advocate for rights, and support collective action.<\/p>\n

    For instance, Bryan and Wood (2015) describe how Zapatista communities in Chiapas have created their own territorial maps that emphasize relational and community-based understandings of space, in contrast to the state\u2019s cadastral and military cartographies. In this capacity, maps do not aim for cartographic precision; rather, they communicate political claims, relational ties, and local knowledge systems.<\/p>\n

    In settler-colonial contexts, Indigenous-led mapping have been used in legal battles to assert land rights, demonstrating that mapping can be both a cultural and legal tool for reclaiming space.
    \n    Back to Table of Contents<\/a><\/p>\n

    \n

    3.3. Learning activities<\/h2>\n

    Watch and reflect<\/h5>\n

    Watch this documentary about (32 minutes) about (counter-)mapping. Think about the following questions:<\/p>\n