Alternative surveyors: mapping activism worldwide

Written by Christian Kreutz, KoopTech, August 17th 2010.
Translated by Ulrike Anderson. See the original article in German
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In southern countries, hobby cartographers chart the infrastructure of the areas that have not previously been taken into consideration.

Kibera is in Kenya, more specifically in Nairobi, and is one of the largest informal urban areas in Africa. But on most maps of the Kenyan capital, Kibera is just an empty space; even though up to a half million people live in the 2.5 square kilometres. Many don’t have access to water and sanitation facilities. Failing resident participation in official infrastructure projects and inaccurate information make management of this densely populated district more difficult. Printed maps are – when they’re available – only very vague.

The project Map Kibera would like to offer an orientation guide. The goal is a publicly accessible and free map that includes as much as possible of the district, with all its local features. This isn’t done by professional cartographers, but rather by the population itself. With the help of GPS devices, mapper contact points record where there are medical services, dumpsters or available drinking water. The mappers are young men and women; they’re from Kibera, more specifically from the 13 different “villages” that the district is made up of. Their work over months created a detailed map that cast a new light on life in Kibera and revealed problems but also potential solutions. Regynnah Awino, one of the mappers, tells how her map of the community was recorded on-site: “At a meeting, we had a discussion with a group of young women called Binti Pamoja that helps women who have been victims of male violence. We didn’t just talk about what they found, but also about the places that, in their opinion, are dangerous or safe for young women. In this way, we didn’t just gain local knowledge, but we also saw that the community responded positively.”

Similar projects to the one in Kibera can be found in Favelas in Brazil. In India, such digital maps helped prove property rights or illustrated disadvantages in constituencies. The inventive spirit is not limited to this. Jeffrey Warren of Grassrootsmapping.org developed a kit for free areal recording. With the help of a small hot air balloon, a simple digital camera was carried to windy heights and showed the effects of the oil spill along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The camera takes a picture every few seconds and a mosaic of the images shows an overview similar to that of satellite pictures, but without the high lens costs for commercial applications.

BY Jeferonix/Jeff Warren – CC License BY-NC-SA

Much of the acquired information will flow into the OpenStreetMap.org, project, which – similarly to the Wikipedia approach – will create a free map of the entire world. In countries like Germany, the map created by volunteers is already more detailed than Google Maps and offers, for example, hiking trails or bike paths that can be downloaded for free. In the map, things that are missing from commercial products are recorded, as the Wheelmap.org project illustrates. Recently in that project, accessible locations in Germany have been recorded. Via the Internet or your mobile, you can find or record the nearest handicap accessible café or other location.

Even in South Africa, the initiators of “Stop-Stock-Outs” count on the residents’ help. Especially people in developing countries are faced with insufficient provision of essential medications, even though access thereto should be part of basic medical care; medication provision that is often impeded by corruption. Victims can now register their crisis on-site via text. The message lands on the map on the internet and shows the abuse in a local comparison.

A different approach is to visualize information that is already available or in large databases with the help of maps. Much of the information contains geo-data and can therefore also be presented geographically. An example is the site Frankfurt-Gestalten.de, where local political topics can be viewed on a map. Here, every resident can subscribe to up-to-date information from the neighbourhood and discuss decisions online. A coherent combination of information and maps is always necessary.

But activists also take traditional paths. Employees of the Cedar Grove Institute for Sustainable Communities interviewed households in the small town of Zanesville City, USA, after years of residents’ complaints regarding insufficient water supply. Following the interviews, a map was created that clearly revealed the uneven water supply. The disadvantaged districts were particularly those with a high African American population.

But maps are not transparent per se; in the history of cartography they often served one-sided power claims or were misused for propaganda. Moreover, the publishing of certain information can also be a violation of privacy. The consequences of publishing should therefore be discussed beforehand with those affected. In any case, the data must be as anonymous as possible. Transparency can possibly also be counterproductive, if indigenous knowledge of native tribes is exploited commercially (raw materials). But through maps, they can also better prove their territorial claims.

Especially for the growing amount of data, digital maps offer a way to reduce complexity and to consider problems from different points of view. They offer an exciting potential for information brokering, especially when residents add data to locations themselves and can simply create their own maps, as was previously only possible for companies. Although this digital maptivism is only in its infancy, it shows a new form of resident engagement for more transparency and participation.

This article first appeared in the magazine Kulturaustausch (Cultural Exchange) – Journal for international perspectives (July 2010 publication).