2013/04/19 by E. Eric Boschmann, Emily Cubbon · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Geographic Information Systems Studies #Geography Education and Pedagogy #Human Mobility and Location-Based Analysis
paper · doi:10.1080/00330124.2013.781490
crossref issued 2013/04/19 · crossref published 2013/04/19 · crossref published-online 2013/04/19 · openalex publication_date 2013/04/19 · crossref created 2013/04/19 · crossref published-print 2014/04/03 · crossref deposited 2025/04/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/07/30 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
Mental and sketch maps have a long tradition in modern geography. Little theoretical and methodological distinction has been made, however, between different hand mapping approaches. Mental maps emerged from behavioral geography of the spatial science tradition as a technique to understand human behaviors based on peoples’ perceptions of their spatial environment. More recently, sketch maps have been used in participatory and qualitative geographic information systems (QGIS) to develop cartographies of group and individual spatial narratives. They are a tool that helps achieve QGIS's objectives of collecting unique spatial data of individual experiences, visualizing socio-spatial processes, breaking down particular barriers of positionality in research, and developing new uses of GIS. Two case studies illustrate the use of sketch maps in research, including a project examining job accessibility among working poor individuals and a study of the experiences of fear and safety in public spaces among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community members. Sketch maps in QGIS have many methodological merits. They add an invaluable dimension to the qualitative interview process, offer countermapping perspectives, generate detailed spatial information of individuals, and facilitate data interpretation.