Stay tune on the website of Cartotête on Hypotheses-OpenEdition for the lastest news and publications:
https://cartotete.hypotheses.org
A French-speaking, international and interdisciplinary network
In 2014, a French-speaking study day on mental maps was organized in Clermont-Ferrand by Sylvain Dernat, François Johany and Sylvie Lardon. Interdisciplinary and centered on the “internal representation” of geographical space, this first day was devoted as much to theoretical models as to methods.
Then, in 2017, a second study day, organized this time in Strasbourg by Anne-Christine Bronner and Thierry Ramadier, aimed to bring together researchers who approached these spatial representations as social constructions and as an indicator among others. of the relationship that individuals have with the material, socio-spatial and symbolic components of geographical space. The intention of this day consisted in not reducing the spatial representations to a double of the geographical space whose function of "cognitive tool" would limit them to guide the displacements, to direct the decisions, in short, to avoid approaching these representations as being simple distorting mirrors (because they are subjective) of geographical space whose only reason for being is to support the daily activities of individuals, and as the mainspring of their construction… these same activities!
During this day, the proposal to form the informal research network Cartotête emerged. It was first structured around a mailing list and the wish to renew these study days every two years. This is how the network then met in Besançon in 2019 and then in Genoa in 2021.
Spatial representations to capture the socialized relationship to geographical space
The Cartotête network retains this specificity of bringing together many disciplines of human and social sciences (geography, architecture, sociology, political science, psychology, etc.) and of giving itself the orientation, on the one hand, of addressing the social dimensions of cognitive mapping, and on the other hand to consider the spatial representation as a revealer available to the researcher to analyze part of the socialized relationship of the individual to the geographical space. This is the reason why we seek to put aside the notion of "mind map", although it is an image appreciated by the general public. We favor the terminology "socio-spatial representation" or, if we are even more precise with the approach developed by the network, "socio-cognitive representation of space". Indeed, “mental map” refers to the mentalism from which this network of researchers tries to move away.
Pour autant, Cartotête repose sur des recherches qui mettent en avant l’analyse de la distribution spatiale des objets géographiques représentés. Les travaux ne se limitent pas aux seuls discours sur l’espace géographique, à ses qualifications et ses significations. Ces dernières sont néanmoins indispensables pour comprendre comment se construisent et s’organisent les représentations spatiales. C’est là une seconde spécificité du réseau Cartotête. Les recherches privilégient autant que faire se peut l’analyse croisée entre organisations spatiales (cognition spatiale) et significations sociales (cognition environnementale), de sorte que les attributs sociaux des personnes interrogées soient un des piliers de l’analyse des représentations spatiales.
Theoretical and operational discussions
This presentation of our research orientations should not suggest that the work of the members of Cartotête remains theoretical and distant from the concerns of space users or the public actors who manage or develop it. Approaching spatial representations in a more metaphorical than functional way, in order to highlight the relationships that individuals have with geographical space, also makes it possible to improve understanding of the conflicts of appropriation of certain places between social groups, or on the contrary to grasp more precisely certain aspects of social segregation in space. This research can also make it possible to grasp some of the reasons that lead to the degradation, to the diversion of initial functions, to the transformation of certain public spaces, to understand what pushes certain social groups to abandon or, on the contrary, to converge towards certain places, etc Finally, the methods developed contribute to the development of participatory or consultation processes in terms of urban or rural development. To put it another way, Cartotête is a network of researchers who try to understand how social differences are constructed in terms of spatial representation and what their links may be with interactions or social relationships.
Loading...