Personal/Political/Feminist Maps
Theoretical Reflections on
Spatial Methods for Action Research
Jen Jack Gieseking Bowdoin College
jgieseking.org @jgieseking
What the map cuts up, the story cuts across. - Michel de Certeau
We have very few creative philosophers in our profession, but we do have a number of technical innovators.
- Yi-Fu Tuan
An Introduction to Feminist Mapping
Methods & Analytics I: Mental Mapping
Methods & Analytics II: GIS & Spatial Statistics
Methods & Analytics III: Interactive GeoWeb GIS
An Outline
Discussion: Room for Interventions by Feminist Mapping
Case: Lesbian-Queer New York
Consider the role of feminist geographies in the moment of big data and new geoweb technologies.
Newly apply and reinvigorate the qualitative and participatory action research (PAR) dimensions of the methods and analytics
that are the strong points of feminist geography.
Broaden methodological contributions of geography in mapping as not just GIS.
Interventions
Expand the voice and ability to communicate participants’ stories and experiences.
Theories of Mapping via Mental Mapping
•Tolman’s “Cognitive Maps in Rats & Men” (1948) & Lynch’s The Image of the City (1960)
•1960s & 1970s geographical method mavericks: Downs & Stea, Hart, Saarninen, Gould & White, Devlin, Milgram & Jodelet, Wood
•Dennis Jr.‘s “Prospects for Qualitative GIS at the Intersection of Youth Development and Participatory Urban Planning” (2006)
>> Gardner’s Frames Of Mind: The Theory Of Multiple Intelligences (1993)
Theories of Mapping via Mental Mapping
Mental mapping as the representation of a individual or group’s cognitive map through hand sketching or computer-based design, including information, emotions, and ideas associated with them, whether real and/or imagined -Gieseking (2013)
From Hayden (1997): “Cognitive maps of Los Angeles as perceived by predominantly Anglo American residents of Westwood” from the LA Dept of Planning 1971
Theories of Mapping via GIS
•Kwan’s (2002, 2014) feminist GIS & “feminist visualization”
•Wilson’s (2013) data “mattering”
•Take off of critical GIS: Wilson, Elwood, Burns, Shears, Thatcher, Graham, Zook, Stephens
Theories of Feminist Geography
•Role and place of embodiment and experience
•Strong methodological work in qualitative research and PAR
•Inclusive of scales of home, body, and intimate - refusing binaries in showing the imbrication of the global & the intimate (Pratt & Rosner 2012)
•Women’s Ways of Knowing (1986) + limitations on what women
Images: © Green Monkey, LHA, Vanity Fair, Tattooinque
• 1979 “ghettos” --> 1983 “neighborhoods”
• Gays linked to patterns of gentrification
• LGBTQ people are most often associated with places such as bars, neighborhoods, and cities
• Consistent claim to territoriality and publics as pathway to LGBTQ liberation
Urban Geographies of Sexualities
Castells (1983)
• “Invisible” • Possess less capital and power • Associated with a narrative of
fear of the city and fear of public space
• Lesbian neighborhoods are more identified as “spatial concentrations” LesbianHerstoryArchives.org. 2012.
Urban Geographies of Women
What do contemporary lesbians’ and queer women’s everyday, urban spaces say about the evolution of
contemporary cities?
How do lesbians’ and queer women’s experiences complicate the narratives of LGBTQ spaces and history?
Image: © Shutterstock
And how do they make us rethink our gendered narratives of cities?
• 47 self-identified lesbians & queer women ★ came out between 1983-2008 ★ 1/3 women of color ★ 1/2 from NYC
Alison Bechdel 1987
Methods
• 22 group interviews ★ within & across generation interviews ★ mixed-methods: mental maps, artifact sharing
Alison Bechdel 1987
• Participatory online focus group
• Archival research ★ Lesbian Herstory Archives ★ 382 organizational records ★ 25 years of publications
Methods
Neighborhoods Bars City
& Bodies
What do contemporary lesbians’ and queer women’s everyday, urban spaces say about their history and
culture?
Color = Participant Year of Coming Out Red = Cassie ’83 (Latina, middle class, from NYC)
Blue = Susan ’92 (white, middle class) Green = Sally ’96 (white, upper-middle class)
Brown = Shawn ’98 (black, middle class, from NYC) Purple = Holly ’03 (white, working-middle class) Orange = Beth ’06 (white, working-middle class)
MANHATTANQUEENS
BROOKLYNWest
Village
East Village
Park Slope
Bed-Stuy
Central Park
WilliamsburgChelsea
Lesbian-Queer Gentrification
QGIS Is…
•Quantum GIS can be found at qgis.org
•F/OSS is free & open source software - accessible by and for public
•Fills gap between ArcGIS and GMaps
•Free and smart GIS practicum: http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/geoportal/practicum/ ℅ Frank Donnelly - taught in six 1.5 hour classes
Mapbox Is…
•Mapbox Studio & TileMill can be found at mapbox.com
•F/OSS is free & open source software with pay as you go storage
•Interactive geoweb technologies - fills gap between QGIS & GMaps with heavy design component in CartoCSS & code for participatory qualities
•Google the TileMill “Crashcourse” & teach in one day with learn as you go CSS work
QPA Contributions
• profound insights into LGBTQ history and culture over place and time
• phased approach to network place-based and period-based scholars
• network LGBTQ individuals, groups, archives, and experiences
• redefine modes of public knowledge production
Consider the role of feminist geographies in the moment of big data and new geoweb technologies.
Newly apply and reinvigorate the qualitative and participatory action research (PAR) dimensions of the methods and analytics
that are the strong points of feminist geography.
Broaden methodological contributions of geography in mapping as not just GIS.
Interventions for Feminist Mapping
Expand the voice and ability to communicate participants’ stories and experiences.
Relationships between one users’ 1,512 friends on Facebook. 2013.
Friendships between 7,188 users of the Facebook group “Queer Exchange” over one
year. 2013.
Moment of Big Data
Consider the role of feminist geographies in the moment of big data and new geoweb technologies.
Newly apply and reinvigorate the qualitative and participatory action research (PAR) dimensions of the methods and analytics
that are the strong points of feminist geography.
Broaden methodological contributions of geography in mapping as not just GIS.
Interventions
Expand the voice and ability to communicate participants’ stories and experiences.
What the map cuts up, the story cuts across. - Michel de Certeau (1984)
We have very few creative philosophers in our profession, but we do have a number of technical innovators.
- Yi-Fu Tuan (1974)
Questions & comments:
@jgieseking jgieseking.org
peopleplacespace.org [email protected]
All papers available on jgieseking.org/publications.
Thank you.