Everyday geographies in the changing city: subjective photo-routes in Mandalay, Myanmar

Abstract

This work upholds the importance of questioning young people to find out their point of view on urban transformation and grasp their perception and representation of the changes. Hence, the paper presents the methodology and results of an autophotography activity, and more specifically photo-routing organized in March 2018 with a group of young undergraduates at Mandalay University, Myanmar. In the sphere of this activity, the participants were asked to reflect on their relationship with the urban space and to use a camera to capture significant places and situations in their everyday experience of the city, with the goal of exploring their personal point of view on the changes occurring in it, both from a tangible and intangible perspective, in addition to how they are reflected in the everyday practice of the city. The idea at the basis of the research-intervention is that the focus on everyday life through qualitative and visual investigation techniques enables the emergence of some of the-both conscious and not-more-thanrepresentational ways in which people-a group of young adults in this specific case-perceive and live the processual nature of the city. Results show that the photo-route tool proved to be particularly effective in stimulating a critical gaze on the city and the changes underway, to acquire awareness of the constantly inbecoming nature of the places and reflect in an introspective manner on their own life course in relation to the city. Thus, the paper provides a contribution ''from below'' to the reflections on urban transformations going on in Southeast Asian cities and, more precisely, in Myanmar.Keywords Photo-routes Á Young adults Á Urban change Á MandalayThe intervention was carried out in collaboration with Stefano Bartolini, at the time research fellow at the University of Florence, who took part in devising and conducting the activity and took care of the technical aspects linked to the acquisition of the geo-referenced images on GIS. Thanks also go to Dr. Nyo Nyo, Professor and Head of the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Mandalay, for her logistical and organizational support.

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