Pandemic Participation: Revisiting Three Central Tenets of Good Practices in Participatory Mapping in Times of COVID-19

Conceptual Framework

Participatory mapping, in its broadest sense, is the creation of maps, both paper and digital, by local experts (Corbett, 2009). The term ‘expert’ here, does not necessarily mean academics or government officials, rather, it means community members with the embedded knowledge and experience needed to map a particular place and the environmental or social histories embedded within it (Chambers, 2006).

Participatory maps represent unique ways of understanding and relating to space and place (Brown & Kyttä, 2018). These ways of knowing are rarely, if ever, depicted in mainstream maps or the planning initiatives informed by such maps. What unites practitioners is their belief that representing spatial knowledge and communicating it through the media of maps can have profound implications for those whose perspective of place and space are marginalized by conventional mapping (Tosi Roquette & McCall, 2021). When properly undertaken, maps produced by the community can become interactive conduits for networking, discussion, information exchange, analysis, and decision making (García-Díez et al., 2020). They can stimulate innovation, and ultimately, they can encourage positive social change.