It almost feels like deja vu beginning the process of settling on a thesis topic, since just two years ago we were going through a similarly hectic process of creating our concentration. Each time I’m asked to come up with a somewhat long-term project in my ENVS classes, I find myself scrambling to find something fresh and new to focus on. The drive to pioneer a new frontier of thought and research is appealing, but at the same time, I keep reminding myself that this project should reflect my previous few years, numerous classes, and countless hours of hard work at Lewis & Clark. My concentration is Place-based Education in Late Industrialized countries, so I do want to keep a focus on place, and ultimately I think mapping will be a way to give voice to the voiceless, usually children and recent immigrants. Mapping provides an outlet that is almost like a universal language to people since it is visual-spatial. Since mental maps record and reflect information about both our physical surroundings and our perceptions of our surroundings, they are useful to the researcher in a variety of ways (Stoltman 1980).
Mental mapping isn’t really new, but it hasn’t been widely implemented before either. I found a few studies that used it for very different things — analyzing segregation in Jerusalem (Greenberg et al. 2014), discovering differences in people’s perceptions of a place versus the realities (Lloyd et al. 1987), and figuring out how modes of transportation increase or decrease a person’s knowledge of an area (Chorus et al. 2010). This is one of my favorite things about mental maps: they can be analyzed in a variety of ways, so if there is an exciting avenue that appears during research, the map can be analyzed for that particular purpose. This was evidenced heavily in Stoltman’s book, meant for teachers, that provided lesson plans which would be very useful for various methodologies and modes of analysis. Below are a few ways Stoltman suggests mental maps can be used:
- Ourselves and our interaction with the environment
- The spatial structure of our environment
- The attitudes we hold toward the environment
- The components of the environment and the degree to which we value them
- Our views of people who share our environment, their attitudes and values
My enamorment with mental maps is probably apparent at this point. I don’t, however, want the tail to wag the dog, or have my methodology dictate what my project will be about. I’m still struggling to find a relevant and interesting thing to measure. I’m interested in community organizing, and I’m curious about what resources people are actually aware about since it’s so easy to remain in the bubble of the few blocks around your home and workplace. There are so many community organizations and resources that people just aren’t aware of. Awareness of natural disaster resources is also interesting to me since I studied the post-earthquake community in New Zealand. That particular community already had a community network in place, and it grew considerably in size after the earthquake, suggesting that these networks might be of vital importance to people as they wait for authorities to send help. I’m not sure if focusing in on natural disasters would provide me with the correct scale though — I think a community network would be just as important during a natural disaster as some other hardship on the community, but perhaps having the focus of a natural disaster would help hone in my focus. Since there are a few other people interested in natural disasters in our cohort, it could be beneficial to share resources and ideas with this group, as well as having Liz as natural disaster support and Jessica as mapping support.
Portland seems like the obvious place to situate my research, not just because of it’s proximal convenience but because of it’s impending natural disaster, if I do decide to pursue a natural disaster focus. Since there hasn’t been a whole lot of mental mapping research done before, it would be important for me to collect mental maps, and since I’m in Portland this would be the easiest way to do that. Gathering my own data is important because, since mental mapping encompasses a two-way conversation between environmental cues and personal perceptions, mental maps “vary significantly between different observers” (Lynch 1960). Therefore gathering data would be very specific to the area I decide on and the specific community I work with. I will definitely need to check with the IRB about interviewing human subjects — although I don’t see mental mapping as a triggering activity that could put people at risk, it could very possibly be a very personal activity.
In short, I am still conflicted, but definitely narrowing in on a specific topic related to place, mapping, community, and awareness of resources.
Stoltman, Joseph P. Mental Maps : Resources for Teaching and Learning. Teaching Geography Occasional Paper ; No. 32. Sheffield: Geographical Association, 1980.