A Critical Perspective on Participatory Mapping for Disaster Risk Reduction

In this presentation, we challenge some common assumptions about participatory mapping and its expected contribution to disaster risk reduction. Indeed, we argue that participatory mapping mirrors tensions between, on one hand, the participatory nature of the process and, on the other hand, the outcome-oriented expectations of mapping. That is, if mapping is genuinely participatory then it should, in many cultural contexts, depart from the normative interpretation of space associated with Cartesian thinking and, hence, is unlikely to meet the expectations of standardised and rigid disaster risk assessments and plans recommended by international, national and non-governmental organisations and policies. We argue that such genuine participatory process of mapping is seldom achieved in practice. Rather, so-called participatory mapping often ends up being one more tool of surveillance that allows powerful stakeholders (government and non-government organisations, among others) to exert control over local people in the name of disaster risk reduction. A perfect case of disaster risk creation in disguise.