Maps from here & abroad

Description

The Maps from here and abroad project aimed to promote the social inclusion of migrant people in France through cartography through two main types of activities: participatory cartography on OSM during mapathons and subjective mapping sessions, i.e. the freehand creation of maps made according to the affect one has for a space. This initiative aimed to offer these activities to residents of emergency shelters or CADAs throughout France, to raise their awareness of digital cartography, but also of an artistic and creative form of cartography.

First phase 

The first phase of the project saw the organization of 11 mapathons and 9 sensitive mapping workshops across France, bringing together some 250 participants.The format of the traditional mapathons was adapted to allow anyone who wished to contribute to a humanitarian aid and international development project to do so. Pairs made up of a member of the host society and a migrant were formed for these events, to enable more exchanges, encourage the learning of new digital tools, and promote sharing between participants.

Subjective mapping workshops were based on a reading approach and a subjective, affective, imaginary and creative representation of a delimited geographical space. This workshop format enabled migrants to express themselves about their place of origin, their new living environment in France and the path they took during their exile. 

In parallel, CartONG has also developed teaching aids and methodologies for running mapathons and subjective mapping workshops for social workers in France, to support associations wishing to explore these new cartographic methodologies for creating social links.

Second phase

The second phase of the project aimed to create spaces of expression for exiled people through the development of group workshops based on an innovative method at the crossroads of subjective mapping and artistic mediation. In this phase, we also adapted the sensitive mapping methodology to the mental health context.

After an initial phase dedicated to the development of a methodology for group art mediation workshops based on subjective mapping, to be able to offer suitable spaces of expression for migrants in mental distress, several workshops were organized throughout France.

In all, 47 workshops were organized in 9 different structures, for 148 participants. Each session was led by a CartONG employee specializing in subjective mapping, and a mental health professional: either an art therapist associated with the project, or a mental health nurse. Throughout the workshops, the neutrality of the facilitators was particularly important: to avoid any aesthetic judgment of the participants’ creations; and to remain in a position of active listening, available in the event of any difficulty encountered by a participant. 

To disseminate the workshop methodology, we have trained around twenty people in our partner structures, and in September 2021 will publish a toolbox entitled “Facilitating artistic mediation workshops around subjective mapping with migrants“, available as open source. In it, the methodology of the Maps from here and abroad workshops is described step by step, illustrated by examples drawn from our own facilitation experience.