The European Union is experiencing intense political and economic restructuring. Recent protests and unrest in France as well as massive border crossings in Spain have focused attention on important issues of labor market flexibilization and immigration. This research will focus on appropriations of cartography by social movements in Europe that are aimed explicitly at carrying out research and distributing information on these restructurings in order to strengthen public debate and civic action. While cartography continues to play an important role in government, education, and the private sector, surprisingly little attention has been focused on how civil society actors produce and use their own maps. This research project focuses on two cartographic collectives: Hackitectura in Spain, and Bureau d'Etudes in France. It asks three primary questions: (1) In what ways did cartography come to play any role in the activities of these social movements and how did these practices diffuse among different groups? (2) What kinds of mapping practices have been adapted and developed by these groups? (3) In what ways might or has the use of cartography by social movements produced new ways of understanding flexibilization and migration, and in which ways have they shaped movement practice? Besides working with the cartographers in these groups on the technical aspects of their data collection, analysis, and mappings, the research uses a mixed methods approach including archival research, interviews, focus groups, and participant observation.
This study has implications both for Geography and public policy. By focusing on an emergent wave of cartographic production by civil society actors the research will contribute to contemporary research and teaching in critical cartographies. In that new mapping practices and new social uses of cartography may be emerging around crucial issues of social policy, the research has the potential to contribute to the future cartographic research and pedagogy. The research also asks how the knowledge and analytical tools produced by social movements contribute to social policy debates about labor markets and immigration. Finally, though focused on processes in the European Union this work speaks to broader contexts. Migration and labor market reform have become increasingly salient features of US public policy. This work speaks to how civil society actors are engaging these issues in tandem with the goal of strengthening citizen participation in decision-making processes.
