EXPLORING THE USE OF CULTURAL MAPPING IN

DESIGNING CULTURAL EXPERIENCE MODEL

SAAD AQEEL ALZAROONI

SPRING 2010

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Introduction

My thesis explores the strategic meaning of cultural resources. It is intended to generate thoughts and conversations, and to create opportunities that could become available if community works together to map their cultural resources. Understanding culture as resources for human and community development, rather than merely as cultural products and commodities, opens possibilities of a great value, and when our understanding of culture is inclusive and broader than the traditionally Eurocentric of “high/elite culture”, then we have increased the assets within which we can address community and civic goals. In approaching the research, I started with the question: what elements include in the term culture? How can we describe cultural resources as strategic assets and how do we know it when we see it? The complexity surrounding the term culture and the dynamic connections with other areas require innovative tools that enables strategic planning and integral use of cultural resources. Cultural mapping can be very useful in this regard. So what is cultural mapping. This diagram represents the context of my topic in which cultural resources is the center of a place feeding into different aspects of development in areas of community concerns such as economic development, health, education and training, and tourism and place marketing.

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Community Development

Economic development

Environmental Planning

Health

Housing

Education and Training

Tourism and Place Marketing

Relationship of cultural resources with other community concerns

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Urban design and planning

Context

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What is cultural mapping?

Design Solution

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A map is a visual representation of an area—a symbolic depiction highlighting relationships between elements of that space.

Places Assets Demographics

Systems Relationships Flows

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Cultural mapping “is the process of identifying and investigating cultural

assets in the community and it strengths

- that are either tangible or intangible…”.

Cultural Planning toolkit. Creative City of Canada (2008), p.6

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Literature review

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Topic analysis

Wide view

Medium view

Zooming-in

Literature review zooms from general to particular

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Cultural planning

Cultural mapping

Concept mapping

In order to better understand the different models and themes around cultural mapping , I have looked at a number of frameworks for different disciplines that can help explain the strategic importance of cultural resources. This diagram shows zooming into the proposed design solution. It illustrates the direction of the literature review starting with an overview of Cultural Planning and the strategic use of culture, moving toward a medium view by discussing cultural mapping, and then it zooms into Concept Mapping which shaped the direction toward the design solution.

In the following I will define the major poles of the debate concerning the term culture and its strategic use. In the literate there no shortage in describing the term culture. It has been used widely in different disciplines. For example, anthropological perspective, views culture as a process or a product of individual or group activities. Based on this principle, culture may be defined as the total complex of spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features that characterize a social group. Likewise, in tourism and cultural events management, the concept of culture is perceived as product and identifies the symbolic meanings attached to cultural events in its conceptual approach. Similarly, the term culture has been used to identify cultural assets and needs for development purposes. This strategic movement operates with a broad definition of culture.

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Literature review

major poles of the debate

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Anthropological perspective

Cultural Tourism

Europe strategic approach

a process of individual or group activities in society

product and identifies the symbolic meanings attached to events

broad definition of culture to identify cultural assets and needs for development purposes

Culture

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Holistic view

Position in the debate

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Culture is what counts as culture to the people involved

This thesis, position its debates on the contention that “Culture is what counts as culture to the people involved”. This broad-based perspective enables the development of a holistic model.

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Cultural Resources

Tangibles

Intangibles

Concept Map shows the diversity of cultural resources

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In doing this research, I was bearing in mind that the value of culture cannot be expressed only with statistics or based on pure quantitative conclusions without considering the human aspect. Therefore, the term cultural resources in this thesis has two dimensions: tangibles and non-tangibles. Culture also has its dynamic connections and flow, which can draw some domains

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Cultural Resources

Tangibles

Intangibles

Community Cultural Organizations

Spaces and Facilities

Creative Cultural Industries

Festivals and Events

Cultural Heritage

Natural Heritage

Attitudes

Religions

Beliefs

Values

Customs

Concept Map shows the diversity of cultural resources

performance

Audio-visual

heritage Creative industry

tourism

Visual arts

Literary

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Methodology / Discussion

Interdisciplinary thinking

Idea visualization

Methodology

Quantitative Qualitative

Ethnographic

Strategy and scenario building

Human and cultural geography

Community well-being

Concept mapping

Social mapping

Information graphic

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The methodology in this thesis is a blend of quantitative and qualitative research. Furthermore, a key component in this thesis is the idea of visualizing the complexity surrounded the term cultural resources. This has inspired me to use this tool to demonstrate the complexity of how people engage in defining cultural resources in their communities.

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I wanted to propose a methodology where the end user will have the opportunity to share his/her understanding of what and how the cultural resources in the community can be expanded and better utilized to contribute to development. And also I needed a visual method that enable me to discover the relationship between fact, the context and the connections. And to be strategic in my approach, I shifted my conceptual framework from being a problem-focused to a building capacity-focused. Also, the approach is attentive to dialogue in which the process is based on community consultation and participatory research.

Key features

Characteristics of Cultural Mapping

Inclusive

Transformative

Dynamic

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Mapping method has the ability to capture the complexity and the dynamic of connections between the material and non-material dimensions of culture. Unlike previous models e.g., cultural survey or inventory, cultural mapping offers visual snapshots and combines the structure and statistical support of quantitative method, while maintaining the participatory aspect of qualitative research. The value of this method lies in its capacity to engage people in an inclusive and participatory setting to define and assess the current cultural landscape in the community and create a framework for future cultural development plans.

Figure 6 Force field diagram of cultural mapping

Advantages Disadvantages

Getting fresh perspective

Comprehensive view of cultural resources

Locating gaps and assessing needs

Locating overlaps

Cost

Community buy-in

Cultural Mapping

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Key features

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Time

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Conclusion & Future direction

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Despite the limitations and challenges surrounded in cultural mapping exercise, it demonstrates a potential for

broaden and enhancing our understanding of the qualitative dimensions of how people experience, interpret and

value diversity of cultures in which they participate. Mapping is more than gathering data, it…

Is multidimensional

Comines quantitative and qualitative

Enables collective management and decision making

Has practical use for culture and non cultural interests

Figure 10 The place of research design in the research process

The research life-cycle

Define (Winter 2010)

Design (Spring 2010)

Do (Fall 2010)

Deliver (Winter 2011)

Testing results against research

questions

Writing up results

Synthesis

Data analysis

Data collection

The idea

Topic analysis

Research puzzle

Research questions

Hypothesis

Purpose

Samples Variables

Methodology Concept

Development Model

Scope

Future direction

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fin

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Saád Aqeel is a graduate student in Design Management program. His research interests lie in exploring the way design can serve as a vehicle for social innovation and community engagement. His thesis explores the multiple uses of cultural mapping methods to understand the complexity surrounding cultural resources and its strategic use for development purposes. Saád holds BA in Social Development and MS in Social Administration. As Saád continues his educational journey, he is striving to explore innovative learning opportunities in design strategies that could be applied to social design or to achieve cultural competence.

B I O G R A P H I C A L S T A T E M E N T

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Figure 2 Literature review zoom from general to particular

Proposed design solution

Concept of culture

Cultural planning

Concept mapping

Wide view

Medium view

Zooming-in

Mental mapping

Cultural mapping

Cultural resources

Medium view

Wide view

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