Instructor: Rodolfo Hernández Pérez, Ph.D. (link)
Instruction design team: Sabrina Davis, Marcela Ortiz Cardona, Fern Marin, and Rodolfo Hernández Pérez.
Levels: Senior/Junior Undergraduate 4000 level course and Graduate 5000 level course.
Credit Hours: 3
Note 1: This course was first taught in person during the Spring of 2024 to undergraduate and graduate students of the Program of Geography at Texas Tech University.
Note 2: The following is a condensed version of the original syllabus.
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This course introduces qualitative mapping (QM) in the 21st century. It explores the vibrating and diverse field applications in urban planning, cartography, geographic information systems (GIS), modern socio-environmental governance, natural resource management, and education.
Throughout a 16-week period, students:
1. Read and discuss bibliographic materials highlighting interdisciplinary contributions of qualitative instruments and thinking in mapping.
2. Work on a digital mapping journal.
3. Codesign an educational workshop about social cartography.
4. Develop a class project about qualitative mapping research. Invited speakers from geography and social sciences will introduce epistemological approaches and frameworks associated with QM, such as qualitative GIS (Q-GIS), deep mapping, social cartography, and indigenous and participatory mapping.
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The course fosters a critical standpoint of QM's historical and theoretical foundations, an integrated view of mixed methods (qualitative, geospatial analysis, and quantitative), and communication strategies to engage and involve different stakeholders, local communities, and academia.
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The contents are taught through a mix of traditional and non-traditional techniques, including the design of problem-solving activities (i.e., how to use sketch mapping to visualize spaces or mind mapping to characterize territories), hands-on exercises (i.e., search in oral history archives representations of territory), real-life challenges (i.e., evaluating an existing educational mapping workshop), and exploration of research agendas that align with individual questions. Practice modules encourage the use of open educational resources, qualitative analysis software (MaxQDA), open source generative AI (i.e., Research Rabbit), shared bibliographic management platforms (Zotero), and undertaking advancing in individual projects that already popular software like ArcGIS or QGIS.
1. Students will discuss qualitative mapping literature of the 21st century and its applications in different disciplinary and social contexts.
1. Distinguish critical qualitative mapping literature of the 21st century.
2. Explain theoretical and methodological frameworks associated with qualitative GIS, participatory, and social mapping.
2. Students will use methodological and communicative skills to construct qualitative maps.
1. Demonstrate the application of qualitative data-gathering instruments and methods in GIS and mapping exercises.
2. Illustrate verbally and in written form the central aspects of building qualitative maps using qualitative GIS, participatory, and mixed-methods approaches.
3. Students will develop a qualitative mapping project based on current disciplinary literature and qualitative methods.
1. Co-design an educational social mapping project addressed to high school students.
2. Design a personal qualitative mapping project that uses the methodological instruments and theoretical approaches studied during the course.
Learning Outcomes
Week
Module
INTRODUCTION TO QUALITATIVE MAPPING, SOCIAL CARTOGRAPHY, AND QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
PROJECT DESIGN & JOURNALING QUALITATIVE MAPPING
WALKABILITY WORKSHOP
BUILDING MAPS BASED ON ORAL HISTORY TRADITIONS
INDIGENOUS GIS
URBAN MAPPING
CARTOGRAPHY OF NATURAL RESOURCES, SOCIAL GROUPS, AND WILDLIFE
CARTOGRAPHY OF NATURAL RESOURCES, SOCIAL GROUPS, AND WILDLIFE II
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LUBBOCK AS A QUALITATIVE MAPPING THEME
Topic
FUNDAMENTALS:
Course Presentation, Qualitative Mapping, and Research Fundamentals
QUALITATIVE DESIGN THINKING:
Mapping communication and project design
SOCIAL APPLICATIONS OF QUALITATIVE MAPPING
BEYOND THE MAP: Oral history and identity
MAPPING CULTURES
SOCIAL APPLICATIONS OF QUALITATIVE MAPPING II
ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY AND NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY AND NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT II
No Class
URBAN LIFE, LOCAL SPACES, AND COMMUNITIES
Weeks 1 & 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10
Week 11
Readings & Literature
Week 1&2:
Cope, M., & Elwood, S. (2009). Introduction: Qualitative GIS: Forging Mixed Methods through Representations, Analytical Innovations, and Conceptual Engagements. In Qualitative GIS: A Mixed Methods Approach, edited by Meghan Cope and Sarah Elwood. SAGE Publications.
Vaughan, L. (2019). Mapping the spatial logic of society. In Mapping Society: The Spatial Dimensions of Social Cartography (pp. 1-23). UCL Press. https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781787353053
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Week 3:
Brown, G., Kyttä, M. (2018). Key issues and priorities in participatory mapping: Toward integration or increased specialization? Applied Geography, 95, 1-8. ISSN 0143-6228. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2018.04.002
Risler, J., Ares, P. (n.d.). Manual of collective mapping: Critical cartographic resources for territorial processes of collaborative creation (1st ed.). Iconoclasistas. https://iconoclasistas.net/4322-2/
Week 4:
Roper, J., Ng, M., & Pettit, C. (2023). Incorporating diminishing returns to opportunities in access: Development of an open-source walkability index based on multi-activity accessibility. Journal of Transport and Land Use, 16(1), 361–387. https://doi.org/10.5198/jtlu.2023.2308
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Week 5:
Zavala Guillen, A. L. (2022). Maroon Socioterritorial Movements. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 112(4), 1123-1138. https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2021.1959293
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Week 6:
Eaton-González, R., Andrade-Sánchez, J., Montaño-Soto, T., Andrade-Tafoya, P., Brito-Jaime, D., González-Estupiñán, K., Guía-Ramírez, A., Rodríguez-Canseco, J., Teon-Vega, A., & Balderas-López, S. (2021). Participatory Mapping as a Didactic and Auxiliary Tool for Learning Community Integration, Technology Transference, and Natural Resource Management. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, 10, 206. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi100402
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Week 7:
Taylor, F. E., Millington, J. D. A., Jacob, E., Malamud, B. D., & Pelling, M. (2020). Messy maps: Qualitative GIS representations of resilience. Landscape and Urban Planning, 198, 103771. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2020.103771
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Week 8:
Trueman, M., Hobbs, R., & Van Niel, K. (2013). Interdisciplinary historical vegetation mapping for ecological restoration in Galapagos. Landscape Ecology, 28(3), 519-532. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-013-9854-4
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Week 9:
Onencan, A. M., Meesters, K., & Van de Walle, B. (2018). Methodology for Participatory GIS Risk Mapping and Citizen Science for Solotvyno Salt Mines. Remote Sensing, 10(11), 1828. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10111828
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Week 11:
Lubbock Compact. (2020, October 10). Lubbock Disparity Report: How Old Lubbock’s Future is Being Stolen and What to Do About It (Version 2) [Online report]. https://lubbockcompact.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Lubbock-Disparity-Report-Version-2.pdf