Ramener la justice sociale au centre de la carte  : propositions pour un renouvellement critique de la cartographie participative axée sur l'<i>empowerment</i>

Abstract

Abstract. This paper discusses the need for a deeper critical interrogation of participatory mapping (PM) method as a tool for social justice. This stance is informed by the author's involvement in a NGO and community-led PM project in an informal settlement in Khayelitsha (Cape Town, South Africa). The paper argues that academic PM literature is ill-equipped to truly examine its potential for social justice. Firstly, this is due to the PM empowerment framework having shifted from an emancipatory aim to a governing tool. Secondly, this shift does not allow for the consideration of the power relations inherent to PM to be engaged with. This paper concludes by engaging the three epistemological and postcolonial roots of PM in order to provide a starting point for (re)centering PM on social justice.

Visibilizing Empowerment as Topological Resonances: Analysis of a Participatory Mapping and Enumeration Project as Strategy for Active Waiting for Housing in Khayelitsha (South Africa)

“…This example resonates with the ''connectedness'' dimension of empowerment, as the set-up of the meeting allowed for a public connection between authorities and community members, through the oversight of the NGO acting as mediator and creating the space-time for this encounter to take place, as well as limiting the potential political hijacking of the space by authoritative actors (see Barella, 2020a for an example based on the same case study).…”

“…Locally and internationally, these methods attract donors and funding (Sieber, 2000). In this perspective, the production of data and maps about residents is one of the prominent strategies implemented by NGO in Cape Town (Barella, 2020a(Barella, , 2020b. As one NGO member stated, ''data is the first step that will feed strategies'' (Fieldnotes, 17 March 2018).…”

“…While most PPGIS and PME interventions aim to empower local communities, they are not without ambiguity. Development approaches fostering community-based and grassroots participation through mapping, GIS and data gathering are increasingly considered a part of the neoliberal urban agenda (Barella, 2020a; Radil & Anderson, 2019; Ghose & Welcenbach, 2018). In this context, people are often seen as pawns who play a frontline role in fulfilling externally determined development agendas and goals, as opposed to partners who use these spaces to direct their own development.…”

“…Mainstream approaches to empowerment tend to focus on the performativity and impact of the final artefact of the process-that is, a redevelopment plan, data from a household survey-therefore contributing to nourish the expectation of a future event which potential is secluded within a specific quantifiable instrumental outcome (Barella, 2020a(Barella, , 2020bElwood, 2009). Smaller achievements and steps towards structural changes are only considered anecdotally.…”

When marginalized subjects map their city: Counter-mapping experiments with drug users in some German and French neighborhoods

“…Such workshops allow local communities or communities of peers to discuss problems encountered in everyday life, to analyze their causes and to work together on alternatives, solutions, political demands or self-organized planning processes. The collective production of a visualization of the common space is a mediation method for debates, analyses and political organization (Barella, 2020). Building on this, Guarascio, Germes and Klaus forged a particular methodology called 'Ideal City Mapping'.…”