Community Mapping - a tool for participatory placemaking

Short description

The aim of community mapping is to create a feeling of positive ownership of a space to citizens. The community mapping is often a starting point to discuss what is worth preserving, what might be changed and what is missing in a neighbourhood and leads to an engaging discussion on change (might be by architecture, social, legal etc.).

The community mapping we did in BerlinWedding is part of a bigger programme to help the local citizens to strengthen ownership, create action plans to identify better and overall to make the area safer, cleaner and more attractive.

Our organisation is working on this in the frame of our participatory programs. The project is for an experiment in modern participatory approaches but as some of our staff is living in the area it is an attempt to help to develop our community.

The first step of the map me happy approach is to make public events in the community with a real map of the area and collect places connected to positive emotion in the community. As public even the target group are literally all citizens, never mind age, gender or nationality.

The participants learn about other perspectives on the public space they inhabitate, they learn about ownership of public spaces and how to prevail or increase the wellbeing in their surroundings. The practice ultimately increases the capabilities to create action plans, articulate thoughts and contributing to decisions making. The narrative developed is highlighting, especially in deprived areas, the positive perspectives of what is around people. They will map places which smell, listen, or feel good, places where they get inspiration and positive thoughts.

The people will create counter narratives, to the mainstream ones, often describe those areas a dirty, unsafe, and unliveable, which are often transported thought media. Beside providing outsiders with new perspectives, the narratives is also aimed on building a community, when people realise, they are not the only ones liking the area (or at least some parts).

In this way the narratives should develop a sense of communal ownership, resulting in a common responsibility to either preserve or change the area, based on the community needs.

SWOT

Strengths Community co-creation process, playful but serious approach, reaching wide impact and outreach, highly visible and accessible for all

Weaknesses you need to work in public space, usage of a set of materials, to make it fully effective several animators are needed.

Opportunities Helps to co-create policy recommendations, citizens led planning and future scenarios, helps to increase community building and cohesion

Threats Public event, might be exposed to political intervention, people might rather map negative emotions

Which aspects are transferable?

Using mapping as a co-creation and coexploration tool of a community is strong. This aspect can be used in many settings and as well in other contexts. Working with positive emotions, launching positive conversations, which brings the community together, but as well asking critical questions later, is a tool which can be used in many learning/teaching and activism contexts.

The project led to the creation of local action plans, which are implemented by the neighbourhood. Additionally, we launched a discussion on the value of the public space and on media discourses in general. The experiences in a co-creation project, enabled empowerment, strengthen participation and increased activism. What kind of change is created ?

The first concrete impact has been the involvement of a large number of people through Facebook, and offline campaigns. The Facebook campaign reached 12000 inhabitants. 350 Points were collected and digitalized on the map and 6 most liked places have been selected. 50 stories have been collected. The two online Eurbanities 1.0. gaming workshops were held with 12 participants each, where six action plans had been developed which finally had been presented to the Quartiersmanagement and supported to be realized. The Community Mapping was the the starting point, which led to a co-creation process, helping a community to articulate their needs, identify their priorities and activate the people to create actions.

Becoming a Neighborhood Divan

The first community mapping took place during a rainy day on a public square, the Leopoldplatz in Berlin-Wedding. The area is known for diversity, social problems but as well gentrification. The Quartiersmanagement called it an increased competition for the social space in the neighborhood. Thus, in the rain it took a bit of time, until the people felt to mark points – they where ready to show pleaces they wanted to complain about, or said they do not have an opinion. However, when we asked them where do you like it, suddenly everyone opened up – started to reflect and found sports. Many staysed for more than 20 minutes on the aerial picture

map, walking around on their neighborhood and exploring places. As the neighborhood is dsivers, as well the bypassers where diverse. Still, at a certain moment an senior men, a Turkish youth group and a homeless person started to talk to each other how much they like a rose garden in the Humboldthain park. This conversation was led by appreciation of a space and a positives exchange on what is there to keep and develop in the neighborhood. In conclusion this annecdot is representing the full potential of the practice and how it can help to bring citizens together.

Conclusion

Community mapping can be a challenging tool, as it requires personal and specific materials, however it is a quick and initutitve tool which can be used to bring a community together, start discussions on the potential of a group and can lead to concrete social actions, producing social impact and change. .

Boxes for NGOs

Jeanne Stephan

Practical information What materials are needed: recyclable materials (boxes threads, post-it, stickers, markers, scissors, glue…, Duration: 1h30 minimum Group Size: 5 to 6 people per group Level of difficulty for learners: easy Short description

Following the experimentation of the ITEP, Therapeutic Educational and Pedagogical Institute, integrated system, the regulatory framework for implementation of their mission has evolved.