Mapping for Citizen Action

Hosts: Rishia Burke and Simon Duffy

Citizens are people who can say “I belong to this place and it's people and I am willing to act from responsibility for my belonging.”
John O'Brien

Maps can be powerful. They can tell a story, sharing information on those things that represent challenges, social injustices, and system issues. Maps can also shine a light on what is strong, those things that help us build community. On 20th September Citizen Network, in partnership with Community Development Halton hosted a global webinar on mapping for citizen action.

Tom French from Sheffield - Read about Tom's work here
Bruna Redoschi of Our Kids Network
Shahzi Yasmin Bokhari of Connection in Action
Hannu Stewart of Maptionnaire

You can watch the presentation part of the webinar here:

The group then had a chance to think about a number of questions and offered a range of answers:

1. Purpose

Define the communities we belong to (e.g. our neighbourhood, our tribe) - e.g. encourage people to come together
Support local and civic decision-making - e.g. helping communities gather funding and invest it locally
Spot pockets of action or fertile areas to begin something new - e.g. lots of people doing creative work
Understand why things are where they are - e.g. spotting patterns to build, like schools as community anchors
Highlight assets, gifts and things to build on - e.g. people with disabilities meeting to plan
Spot where needs or duplications exist - e.g. to make grant applications -
Run development projects - e.g. invest in social housing
Represent complex realities - e.g. understanding relationships between tress and pollution
Enable citizen action - e.g. sites for guerrilla gardening)
Convert data into a meaningful reality - e.g. what share of public spending is ours
Prompt new thinking - e.g. ask people what they are thankful for