Citizen Mapping as a City-Making Practice

Abstract

This paper hypothesises that gaps in knowledge and understanding of our urban spatial processes have been facilitated by a stark emphasis on measurable and simulated data, as well as by the absence of non-measurable subjective experiences in contemporary data collection methods. Therefore, the paper discusses an inclusive way of contributing to city-making in which citizens create as well as add value to, and extract value through their collective efforts. The research aims to deepen engagement between citizens and urban design by discussing an app-based participatory tool through which citizens can identify, record and reflect upon different space-making parameters in their immediate surroundings. This tool provides a novel vocabulary to challenge the exclusionary practices of contemporary data collection, and brings out the strengths of citizen participation within urban design.