Cultural mapping, which spans many academic disciplines and
methodologies, is
informed by the observation that cultural phenomena are distributed
spatially and that
people experience the symbolic resources of their communities in spatial
terms. While
cultural mapping is firmly grounded in the world of academic disciplines
and inquiry, it
has a pragmatic dimension as well. In the Creative City Network of
Canada's Cultural
Mapping Toolkit, for example, Cultural Mapping is defined pragmatically
as “a process of
collecting, recording, analyzing and synthesizing information in order
to describe the
cultural resources, networks, links and patterns of usage of a given
community or
group.†Cultural mapping is generally regarded as a systematic tool to
identify and
record local cultural assetsâ€"and these assets are thought of as
“tangible†or
quantitative (physical spaces, cultural organizations, public forms of
promotion and selfrepresentation,
programs, cultural industries, natural heritage, cultural heritage,
people,
and resources) and “intangible†or qualitative (community narratives,
values,
relationships, rituals, traditions, history, shared sense of place).
Together these assets
help define communities in terms of cultural identity, vitality, sense
of place, and quality
of life.
Cultural mapping, then, is a theoretically informed research practice
and a highly
pragmatic planning and development tool. But cultural mapping can also
be viewed as a
form of cultural production and expression. Mapping can itself be
culturalâ€"that is,
animated by artists and artistic approaches to mapping collective and
competing senses
of place, space, and community. The Folkvine project in Florida (and the
work of the
Florida Research Ensemble generally); the memory mapping work of Marlene
Creates
and Ernie Kroeger; the storymapping of First Nations experiences in
small cities
documented by the Small Cities CURA; Map Art and Diagram Art from the
Surrealists to
the Situationists to the work of contemporary artists; Sound Mapping,
sonic
geographies, and acoustic ecology research: these alternative approaches
to mapping
culture and community are helping to expand and refine the possibilities
for mapping as
a form of cultural inquiry.
The editors of Cultural Mapping as Cultural Inquiry seek submissions
that address
cultural mapping in all its forms and applications. Abstracts and
inquiries should be sent
by March 30, 2012 to Dr. W.F. Garrettâ€Petts, Faculty of Arts, Thompson
Rivers
University: petts@tru.ca
Editors for the refereed book publication (to be published jointly by
the Centro de
Estudos Sociais at the University of Coimbra, Textual Studies in Canada
and the Small
Cities Communityâ€University Research Alliance): David MacLennan, W.F.
Garrettâ€Petts,
and Nancy Duxbury.
Centro de Estudos Sociais: www.ces.uc.pt
The Small Cities CURA: www.smallcities.ca
