Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Mental Mapping The 'Creative City', Christopher Brennan-Horley

Christopher R Brennan-Horley

Cultural researchers are increasingly turning to Geographical Information Systems (GIS) technologies for visualising spatially-oriented qualitative data. This paper discusses one example, where mental maps have been employed in interviews with creative industry workers and the results accumulated in a GIS for visualisation and analysis. This technique extends on participatory and qualitative methods that counteract overtly economic and empiricist techniques regularly employed in creative industry mapping studies. Collating together creative workers' mental maps within a GIS provides a means for exposing 'high traffic' areas - hot spots of creative activity - and other hidden geographies that comprise the 'creative city'. Key …