Ecologies of place : emergent mapping practices, research perspectives and scenarios

Digital technologies are increasingly providing a range of emerging possibilities for social enablement, and for engagement with local cultures and practices. The potential and actual functionality of Google Maps, Google Earth and other combinations of internet data immersion events, systems and projects ('mashups') raise questions around the quality and function of such emerging forms of embodied and virtual knowledge practices for urban cultural contexts. The strategic significance of how emergent mapping practices can engage with, and discover, new knowledge about urban configurations needs critical consideration. This article provides a critical overview of how some of these issues are explored at a trans-disciplinary workshop titled "Ecologies of Place". This definition is given as a means through which to engage with both human and non-human forms of agency and materiality. Using a variety of mapping approaches across a range of disciplines, the intention was to challenge existing assumptions, engage with multiple discourses and open up new areas for potential research. This essay describes and critiques some of these emergent mapping approaches and describes in greater detail one mapping approach titled Future Research Scenario (FRS) through two case studies. This emergent mapping approach is located within the broader field of futurist practices around scenario thinking, and the defining of research questions. The FRS mapping approach involves participatory de-construction of planning proposals around what is termed the "Ecology of Place". These representations are discussed as highly contextual, and driven by the involvement of the participants as relational problem explorations around defining questions for further research. Each case study leads to different outcomes highlighting strengths and difficulties that are contrasted as unique configurations of local mapping practices.