Top Banner
Personal/Political/ Feminist Maps Theoretical Reflections on Spatial Methods for Action Research Jen Jack Gieseking Bowdoin College jgieseking.org @jgieseking
37

Gieseking - Personal/Political/Feminist Maps: Reflections on Spatial Methods for Action Research

Jul 16, 2015

Download

Education

Welcome message from author
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
Page 1: Gieseking - Personal/Political/Feminist Maps: Reflections on Spatial Methods for Action Research

Personal/Political/Feminist Maps

Theoretical Reflections on

Spatial Methods for Action Research

Jen Jack Gieseking Bowdoin College

jgieseking.org @jgieseking

Page 2: Gieseking - Personal/Political/Feminist Maps: Reflections on Spatial Methods for Action Research

What the map cuts up, the story cuts across. - Michel de Certeau

We have very few creative philosophers in our profession, but we do have a number of technical innovators.

- Yi-Fu Tuan

Page 3: Gieseking - Personal/Political/Feminist Maps: Reflections on Spatial Methods for Action Research

An Introduction to Feminist Mapping

Methods & Analytics I: Mental Mapping

Methods & Analytics II: GIS & Spatial Statistics

Methods & Analytics III: Interactive GeoWeb GIS

An Outline

Discussion: Room for Interventions by Feminist Mapping

Case: Lesbian-Queer New York

Page 4: Gieseking - Personal/Political/Feminist Maps: Reflections on Spatial Methods for Action Research

Consider the role of feminist geographies in the moment of big data and new geoweb technologies.

Newly apply and reinvigorate the qualitative and participatory action research (PAR) dimensions of the methods and analytics

that are the strong points of feminist geography.

Broaden methodological contributions of geography in mapping as not just GIS.

Interventions

Expand the voice and ability to communicate participants’ stories and experiences.

Page 5: Gieseking - Personal/Political/Feminist Maps: Reflections on Spatial Methods for Action Research

An Introduction to Feminist Mapping

Page 6: Gieseking - Personal/Political/Feminist Maps: Reflections on Spatial Methods for Action Research

Theories of Mapping via Mental Mapping

•Tolman’s “Cognitive Maps in Rats & Men” (1948) & Lynch’s The Image of the City (1960)

•1960s & 1970s geographical method mavericks: Downs & Stea, Hart, Saarninen, Gould & White, Devlin, Milgram & Jodelet, Wood

•Dennis Jr.‘s “Prospects for Qualitative GIS at the Intersection of Youth Development and Participatory Urban Planning” (2006)

>> Gardner’s Frames Of Mind: The Theory Of Multiple Intelligences (1993)

Page 7: Gieseking - Personal/Political/Feminist Maps: Reflections on Spatial Methods for Action Research

Theories of Mapping via Mental Mapping

Mental mapping as the representation of a individual or group’s cognitive map through hand sketching or computer-based design, including information, emotions, and ideas associated with them, whether real and/or imagined -Gieseking (2013)

From Hayden (1997): “Cognitive maps of Los Angeles as perceived by predominantly Anglo American residents of Westwood” from the LA Dept of Planning 1971

Page 8: Gieseking - Personal/Political/Feminist Maps: Reflections on Spatial Methods for Action Research

Theories of Mapping via GIS

•Kwan’s (2002, 2014) feminist GIS & “feminist visualization”

•Wilson’s (2013) data “mattering”

•Take off of critical GIS: Wilson, Elwood, Burns, Shears, Thatcher, Graham, Zook, Stephens

Page 9: Gieseking - Personal/Political/Feminist Maps: Reflections on Spatial Methods for Action Research

Theories of Feminist Geography

•Role and place of embodiment and experience

•Strong methodological work in qualitative research and PAR

•Inclusive of scales of home, body, and intimate - refusing binaries in showing the imbrication of the global & the intimate (Pratt & Rosner 2012)

•Women’s Ways of Knowing (1986) + limitations on what women

Images: © Green Monkey, LHA, Vanity Fair, Tattooinque

Page 10: Gieseking - Personal/Political/Feminist Maps: Reflections on Spatial Methods for Action Research

Case: from Living in an (In)Visible World to Queer New York

Page 11: Gieseking - Personal/Political/Feminist Maps: Reflections on Spatial Methods for Action Research

• 1979 “ghettos” --> 1983 “neighborhoods”

• Gays linked to patterns of gentrification

• LGBTQ people are most often associated with places such as bars, neighborhoods, and cities

• Consistent claim to territoriality and publics as pathway to LGBTQ liberation

Urban Geographies of Sexualities

Castells (1983)

Page 12: Gieseking - Personal/Political/Feminist Maps: Reflections on Spatial Methods for Action Research

• “Invisible” • Possess less capital and power • Associated with a narrative of

fear of the city and fear of public space

• Lesbian neighborhoods are more identified as “spatial concentrations” LesbianHerstoryArchives.org. 2012.

Urban Geographies of Women

Page 13: Gieseking - Personal/Political/Feminist Maps: Reflections on Spatial Methods for Action Research

What do contemporary lesbians’ and queer women’s everyday, urban spaces say about the evolution of

contemporary cities?

How do lesbians’ and queer women’s experiences complicate the narratives of LGBTQ spaces and history?

Image: © Shutterstock

And how do they make us rethink our gendered narratives of cities?

Page 14: Gieseking - Personal/Political/Feminist Maps: Reflections on Spatial Methods for Action Research

1983-2008 NYC

Images: © Levine Roberts, Keith Haring, n/a, GO, gonyc.gov

Page 15: Gieseking - Personal/Political/Feminist Maps: Reflections on Spatial Methods for Action Research

• 47 self-identified lesbians & queer women ★ came out between 1983-2008 ★ 1/3 women of color ★ 1/2 from NYC

Alison Bechdel 1987

Methods

• 22 group interviews ★ within & across generation interviews ★ mixed-methods: mental maps, artifact sharing

Page 16: Gieseking - Personal/Political/Feminist Maps: Reflections on Spatial Methods for Action Research

Alison Bechdel 1987

• Participatory online focus group

• Archival research ★ Lesbian Herstory Archives ★ 382 organizational records ★ 25 years of publications

Methods

Page 17: Gieseking - Personal/Political/Feminist Maps: Reflections on Spatial Methods for Action Research

Neighborhoods Bars City

& Bodies

What do contemporary lesbians’ and queer women’s everyday, urban spaces say about their history and

culture?

Page 18: Gieseking - Personal/Political/Feminist Maps: Reflections on Spatial Methods for Action Research

Methods & Analytics I: Mental Mapping

Page 19: Gieseking - Personal/Political/Feminist Maps: Reflections on Spatial Methods for Action Research

Lesbian-Queer Neighborhoods

Desi ‘91’s Map Sally ‘95’s Map

Page 20: Gieseking - Personal/Political/Feminist Maps: Reflections on Spatial Methods for Action Research

Color = Participant Year of Coming Out Red = Cassie ’83 (Latina, middle class, from NYC)

Blue = Susan ’92 (white, middle class) Green = Sally ’96 (white, upper-middle class)

Brown = Shawn ’98 (black, middle class, from NYC) Purple = Holly ’03 (white, working-middle class) Orange = Beth ’06 (white, working-middle class)

MANHATTANQUEENS

BROOKLYNWest

Village

East Village

Park Slope

Bed-Stuy

Central Park

WilliamsburgChelsea

Lesbian-Queer Gentrification

Page 21: Gieseking - Personal/Political/Feminist Maps: Reflections on Spatial Methods for Action Research

Methods & Analytics II: GIS & Spatial Statistics

Page 22: Gieseking - Personal/Political/Feminist Maps: Reflections on Spatial Methods for Action Research

QGIS Is…

•Quantum GIS can be found at qgis.org

•F/OSS is free & open source software - accessible by and for public

•Fills gap between ArcGIS and GMaps

•Free and smart GIS practicum: http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/geoportal/practicum/ ℅ Frank Donnelly - taught in six 1.5 hour classes

Page 23: Gieseking - Personal/Political/Feminist Maps: Reflections on Spatial Methods for Action Research

QGIS: Mapping Whiteness

1980 2010

Page 24: Gieseking - Personal/Political/Feminist Maps: Reflections on Spatial Methods for Action Research

QGIS: Mapping Housing Value

2000 2010

Page 25: Gieseking - Personal/Political/Feminist Maps: Reflections on Spatial Methods for Action Research

Methods & Analytics III: Interactive GeoWeb GIS

Page 26: Gieseking - Personal/Political/Feminist Maps: Reflections on Spatial Methods for Action Research

Mapbox Is…

•Mapbox Studio & TileMill can be found at mapbox.com

•F/OSS is free & open source software with pay as you go storage

•Interactive geoweb technologies - fills gap between QGIS & GMaps with heavy design component in CartoCSS & code for participatory qualities

•Google the TileMill “Crashcourse” & teach in one day with learn as you go CSS work

Page 27: Gieseking - Personal/Political/Feminist Maps: Reflections on Spatial Methods for Action Research

Queer Public Archive at Work

Lesbian Herstory Archives

Page 28: Gieseking - Personal/Political/Feminist Maps: Reflections on Spatial Methods for Action Research

Queer Public Archive at Work

1983 1998

Page 29: Gieseking - Personal/Political/Feminist Maps: Reflections on Spatial Methods for Action Research

QPA Contributions

• profound insights into LGBTQ history and culture over place and time

• phased approach to network place-based and period-based scholars

• network LGBTQ individuals, groups, archives, and experiences

• redefine modes of public knowledge production

Page 30: Gieseking - Personal/Political/Feminist Maps: Reflections on Spatial Methods for Action Research

Discussion: Room for Interventions by Feminist Mapping

Page 31: Gieseking - Personal/Political/Feminist Maps: Reflections on Spatial Methods for Action Research

Consider the role of feminist geographies in the moment of big data and new geoweb technologies.

Newly apply and reinvigorate the qualitative and participatory action research (PAR) dimensions of the methods and analytics

that are the strong points of feminist geography.

Broaden methodological contributions of geography in mapping as not just GIS.

Interventions for Feminist Mapping

Expand the voice and ability to communicate participants’ stories and experiences.

Page 32: Gieseking - Personal/Political/Feminist Maps: Reflections on Spatial Methods for Action Research

Seeing Our Voices

Page 33: Gieseking - Personal/Political/Feminist Maps: Reflections on Spatial Methods for Action Research

Relationships between one users’ 1,512 friends on Facebook. 2013.

Friendships between 7,188 users of the Facebook group “Queer Exchange” over one

year. 2013.

Moment of Big Data

Page 34: Gieseking - Personal/Political/Feminist Maps: Reflections on Spatial Methods for Action Research

Geography as More than GIS

Page 35: Gieseking - Personal/Political/Feminist Maps: Reflections on Spatial Methods for Action Research

Consider the role of feminist geographies in the moment of big data and new geoweb technologies.

Newly apply and reinvigorate the qualitative and participatory action research (PAR) dimensions of the methods and analytics

that are the strong points of feminist geography.

Broaden methodological contributions of geography in mapping as not just GIS.

Interventions

Expand the voice and ability to communicate participants’ stories and experiences.

Page 36: Gieseking - Personal/Political/Feminist Maps: Reflections on Spatial Methods for Action Research

What the map cuts up, the story cuts across. - Michel de Certeau (1984)

We have very few creative philosophers in our profession, but we do have a number of technical innovators.

- Yi-Fu Tuan (1974)

Page 37: Gieseking - Personal/Political/Feminist Maps: Reflections on Spatial Methods for Action Research

Questions & comments:

@jgieseking jgieseking.org

peopleplacespace.org [email protected]

All papers available on jgieseking.org/publications.

Thank you.