Two-Dimensional Maps in Multi-Dimensional Worlds

Abstract

"Mapping is fast becoming a tool of critical importance for communities rushing to render legible their longstanding claims to common property resources. Motivating the move to map is the need to have accurate representations of community needs and management practices in order to obtain more secure land tenure. However, the spatiality of local land tenure arrangements and land use practices are more varied, dynamic and multiple than are mapped two-dimensional zones of resource use and rights. The conventional tools of mapping, which map abstract space and render a complex configuration of social-ecological relationships in two-dimensional form, can have unforeseen consequences. Instead of describing already existing land use and management, community based mapping can prescribe changes in how residents manage their land, effectively becoming not only a tool for securing land tenure but also a tool for the spatial re- organization of land use and management.

"This paper is based on research conducted in the mountains of Northern Thailand and examines a community based mapping project designed to help increase land security for villagers facing the establishment of a National Park. The case shows how mapping techniques that fix and simplify fluid and complex associations can become prescriptive and can actually change how people think about and manage their land. In this case, mapping promoted a change from communal to private property management and made static once flexible land use patterns. The paper does not advocate for the abandonment of two-dimensional mapping, but recommends a multi-mapping strategy to better illuminate the spatial complexity of community resource use and management. The combination of modern mapping technology and multi- media has the potential to overcome the constraints of mapping in two- dimensions."