TECHNIQUES

The map of my neighbourhood

This exercise helps people reflect on their connection to space in the community. Participants are invited to draw the map of their neighbourhood based on their personal history. This mapping technique helps researchers, as well as participants, to understand how the physical space of a community intertwines with people’s lived experiences.

Written by

Luis Felipe Moreno and Gioel Gioacchino

Edited by

Anna Wolrhab

Developed by

Stages:Community Building* Data Collection

This technique is a mix between a mapping exercise utilized by Recrear and another one developed by Luis Felipe Moreno while working at the Institute for the Protection of Children and Youth (IDIPRON) in Bogotá, Colombia. At IDIPRON, the exercise was used in a study to research the relationship between a Hip Hop group and a new community integration strategy called ‘Armemos Parche’.

What are we trying to understand about the community/group?

This technique helps us understand the interconnection between the physical environment of a neighbourhood/town/city and people's lived experience within that environment. They tell us their stories by using their very own symbols, history and their relationship to their territory to create their individual map.

Why is it important for the community’s/group's development?

By learning about the relationship with physical space, we start to better understand people’s day-to-day experiences in their communities. It might highlight power relationships, as well as the rhetorics and stories that people use to interpret and process their experience in a specific context.

What do I need?

Flipchart paper, pens and markers. Alternatively, you can use chalk and draw on the road. Ideally use a phone or camera to digitize the maps.

How long does it take?

Depending on the size of the group it can take between one hour and a half to two hours.

Organize the space and prepare materials and camera;

Explain that this is a mapping exercise that is useful to share stories about the personal and the group’s relationship to their neighbourhood/town/city. If this exercise is used as part of a specific research process, feel free to adapt it to include other steps/details in the mapping process.

If you are working with a large group, divide in smaller sub-groups of 4 to 5 people (ideally from the same neighbourhood).

Invite people to draw the map of their community ( 15 minutes);

Prompt participants to include the different actors that are important to the group in the map (15 minutes); this could include the houses of friends, their work place, university, a park they frequent regularly etc.

Give instructions to include the locations of particular symbols that are important to them in the map(e.g. a statue, street art, a spot they always go to etc.) (15 minutes)

Give directions to add hearts to the map to describe places where they feel good and ‘Xs’ in places in which there is conflict, tension, or violence (15 minutes).

Sharing

If you are using this exercise as part of an interview process, ask the interviewee to share their personal story in relationship to the map (who have they interacted with, where do they spend time, etc.) (15 to 30 minutes).
If you are working with a larger group, allow for 5 to 10 minutes for each person in the sub-groups to share their personal story in relationship to the map. Then invite each sub-group to present their map to the larger group (10 minutes per group). Make sure to allow for a discussion after the presentations - and take notes!

This is a great tool to learn about the history and the vibe of a place from each individual’s perspective. This tool can also spark deep conversations about divergent opinions on community dynamics.

This technique might be hard to implement if you are working with a group of people from different geographic locations. In the case of a culturally diverse group you might want to invite people to drawn their own individual maps, or get creative about how you represent common community spaces on a conceptual map – while allowing the unique features of people’s individual communities to still come out.