Participatory Mapping
Revealing territories to guide collective action
As part of its action-research activities, CREATES develops and experiments with participatory methods that enable vulnerable communities to co-construct knowledge and guide collective action in the face of ongoing transformations. Among these methods, participatory mapping holds a central place.
What is participatory mapping?
Participatory mapping is a collaborative process in which community members collectively create maps of their territory, incorporating their knowledge, practices and perceptions. Unlike conventional mapping carried out by experts, this approach places inhabitants at the centre of spatial knowledge production. It uses a variety of tools — drawings, scale models, GPS, geographic information systems — adapted to local contexts and skills.
Why CREATES uses it
Participatory mapping is far more than a technical tool. It enables inhabitants to see their territory differently, to grasp the changes and pressures — sometimes invisible in everyday life — that bear upon their environment. By bringing together perspectives, lived experiences and memories, it circulates knowledge that is often dispersed and makes it accessible for collective reflection. For CREATES, it is an essential instrument for revealing territorial dynamics and feeding transformative action-research.
How it works
The process unfolds in several stages. First, community workshops bring together inhabitants, researchers and local actors to identify the key issues facing the territory. Participants then collectively map natural resources, land uses, vulnerability zones and dynamics of change. The maps produced are then analysed and discussed to co-construct action strategies. This iterative process allows territorial knowledge to be progressively validated and enriched.
Concrete examples
On Senegal's Petite Côte, participatory mapping has enabled fishing and farming communities to visualise the evolution of their coastline and agricultural land in the face of urban pressure and climate change. Within the Bey Diiwaan project, this method is used to support communities in understanding and governing their territorial food systems, making visible the flows, actors and interdependencies that structure their territory.
Sharing knowledge to act together
Like participatory theatre or video, also experimented with by CREATES, mapping is a way of pooling what communities know, feel and experience. This shared knowledge becomes a powerful lever for collective action, commons governance and territorial planning. This approach is fully aligned with CREATES' mission: supporting communities in their capacity to act, by mobilising tools that make issues visible and transforming shared knowledge into concrete action.