2.1 Shifting the Cartographic Gaze to Sense like a Sovereign Body

power are also key to the effectiveness of asset-based community development, mutual aid networks, community land trusts, and cooperative enterprise that help marginalized communities build resilience in the face of gentrification and other threats (Corburn, 2005; Medoff, 1994; Nangwaya & Akuno, 2017; Nembhard, 2014; Scharpie, 2017).

Moreover, we build on the concept of “regenerative mapping” presented by Muñoz et al. (2021) and inspired by practitioners of regenerative design and development (Hes & Plessis, 2014). “Regenerative” mapping is grounded in the power of all living beings and systems to regenerate, e.g., to heal and recreate personal, social, and ecological wellbeing. This use of “regenerative” resonates with calls for a just transition to a regenerative economy – one that is "based on ecological restoration, community protection, equitable partnerships, justice, and full and fair participatory processes” (United Frontline Table, 2020, p. 6).

2.1 SHIFTING THE CARTOGRAPHIC GAZE TO SENSE LIKE A SOVEREIGN BODY While colonial sovereign rationalities aim to impose supreme control over bounded territories to develop them according to their highest and best economic use, radical sovereignty is deeply rooted in reciprocal relationships of care among people and land. In the words of Phillip Blake (Blake, 1977, pp. 7–8), a chief of the Dene nation from Fort McPherson (emphasis added):

“We have lived with the land, not tried to conquer or control it or rob it of its riches. … [W]e have not tried to conquer new frontiers, or out do our parents or make sure that every year we are richer than the year before. We have been satisfied to see our wealth as ourselves and the land we live with. … I believe your nation might wish to see us, not as a relic from the past, but as a way of life, a system of values by which you may survive in the future. This we are willing to share.” Inspired by critical indigenous traditions (Harjo, 2019; Kimmerer, 2015; Lyons & Mohawk, 1998), we posit that these relationships of care and their system of values are rooted in three natural laws, or principles for vitality in living systems: reciprocity, integrity, and liberty (Walsh, 2021). Translated into practice:

● Reciprocity is the exercise of awareness and power to support mutual flourishing relationships, supported by responsively metabolizing feedback and practicing gratitude for diverse gifts and strengths; the practice of reciprocity depends upon an appreciative gaze – a view capable of recognizing gifts and expressing both appreciation and attribution in ways that enable the twoway flow of diverse gifts – including feedback (Ghaye, 2010; Macy & Johnstone, 2012); ● Integrity is the exercise of awareness and power to restore broken promises and integral health in living systems; the practice of integrity depends upon a compassionate gaze – a view capable of imagining a state of complete wholeness in which all parts belong, and suffering can be held together and transformed into energy for action (Cunningham, 2021; Greenberg & Turksma, 2015); ● Liberty is the exercise of awareness and power to create and choose powerful states of being and empowering storylines of desired futures that call us forward; the practice of liberty depends upon a decolonial gaze – a capacity for self- and system-awareness that can name and disrupt

structures of oppression, creating space for personal and collective self-expression, co-creativity, and collective action (Harjo, 2019; Suarez, 2018). ii Together, these capacities for system-awareness establish a foundation to make a shift to sensing like a sovereign body and exercising liberatory power. With this foundation, researchers and community members can enact geographies of radical resilience through regenerative mapping techniques including asset mapping, story mapping, promise mapping, and kinship mapping, as summarized in Table 1.

Technique Practices of sensing as sovereign bodies Overview of technique

Asset Mapping Practice of reciprocity & an appreciative gaze

Story Mapping Practice of liberty & a decolonial gaze

Promise Mapping Practice of integrity & a compassionate gaze

Kinship Mapping Integrated practices & gazes of reciprocity, liberty, & integrity Community asset mapping is centered on the theory that local communities can do more together by focusing on what they have—their tangible and intangible gifts, talents, and community assets—instead of what they are missing (Boyd & Bright, 2007; Ghaye, 2010; Kretzmann & McKnight, 1993). Asset maps can be produced spatially using participatory analog or digital GIS techniques and technologies, and/or visualized conceptually using network mapping. Story mapping further supports asset-based community development by drawing out and documenting stories of neighbors as they see, experience, remember, and interpret their neighborhoods (Sandercock, 2003). As a form of participatory GIS, story mapping tells individual and collective place-based narratives with digital and spatial data (LungAmam & Dawkins, 2020) Story mapping is a particularly liberatory practice when community members use it to disrupt oppressive, limiting narratives and replace them with empowering storylines (Suarez, 2018). Promise mapping spatially documents past promises and agreements made by the State or other players, especially from previous city plans, and pairs them with photographs that document present conditions.iii By contrasting past recommendations to present conditions, communities may either hold officials accountable for desired promises that are unfulfilled, or organize resistance to problematic and illegitimate recommendations that imperil desired futures. Kinship maps use social network mapping techniques to visualize vital connections and flows of social capital among people who experience a sense of kinship (e.g., belonging, trust, mutual care) usually related to a common sense of purpose. The dynamic interface enables facilitated dialogue and collaborative sense-making, allowing members to see themselves as a whole that is more than a sum of its parts (Capra, 2016).