Getting your Data: Community Mapping

Research for Organizing. (2011-2016). “Getting your Data: Community Mapping.” Website.

Mapping is the visual representation of data by geography or location, the linking of information to place.  Community mapping does this in order to support social and economic change on a community level. Mapping is a powerful tool in two ways: (1) it makes patterns based on place much easier to identify and analyze and (2) it provides a visual way of communicating those patterns to a broad audience, quickly and dramatically. This website has activities, training, sample canvassing sheets, case studies, and other concrete tools to help begin community mapping.


Tactical Mapping: How Nonprofits Can Identify the Levers of Change



Participatory Mapping to negotiate indigenous knowledge used to assess environmental risk

Robinson, C. J., Maclean, K., Hill, R., Bock, E., & Rist, P. (2016). Participatory mapping to negotiate indigenous knowledge used to assess environmental risk. Sustainability Science, 11(1), 115-126.

Covers a method where participants, Aboriginal People from Northern Australia, painted and drew maps of their values, knowledge and management aspirations for water and native vegetation. The article describes a participatory research methodology focusing on two case studies to show how indigenous people can share knowledge in environmental risk assessment and management responses. To design an effective methodology the article first focuses on the definitions of indigenous rights and knowledge. A co-research approach between the leaders of the indigenous people and scientists was used in various projects where the community leaders worked with the researchers to select participants and design the participatory mapping workshops. In these workshops the people came up with participatory maps that were effective in designing knowledge partnerships for given environmental issues. During this mapping process the complexities of different indigenous knowledge in the region emerged; a challenge in participatory action research as well as decolonized methodologies approach in research.
Ethics: the article focuses on how to develop ways of knowledge sharing, debating and co-producing while maintaining the integrity of each knowledge system and the respective responsibilities of the individuals involved in this process.