Cultural Mapping as Cultural Inquiry

<p>This edited collection provides an introduction to the emerging interdisciplinary field of cultural mapping offering a range of perspectives that are international in scope. Cultural mapping is a mode of inquiry and a methodological tool in urban planning cultural sustainability and community development that makes visible the ways local stories practices relationships memories and rituals constitute places as meaningful locations. The chapters address themes processes approaches and research methodologies drawn from examples in Australia Canada Estonia the United Kingdom Egypt Italy Malaysia Malta Palestine Portugal Singapore Sweden Syria the United Arab Emirates the United States and Ukraine. Contributors explore innovative ways to encourage urban and cultural planning community development artistic intervention and public participation in cultural mapping—recognizing that public involvement and artistic practices introduce a range of challenges spanning various phases of the research process from the gathering of data to interpreting data to presenting findings to a broad range of audiences. The book responds to the need for histories and case studies of cultural mapping that are globally distributed and that situate the practice locally regionally nationally and internationally.</p>