Mapping conversations

Abstract

Although body mapping is often a reflection of the individual body, body maps can also be created and used by groups to foster particularly productive conversations. This chapter explores how body mapping has been used in two studies with groups of young people to investigate complex and sensitive topics. The processes of body mapping in a group not only transformed the body map into a collective and dialogic space for conversation, but also facilitated young people to talk about and share things in new ways. We argue that creating a body map in a group context was safe for young people in that it both allowed them to externalise and distance from their own bodies, while at the same time enabling them to direct how and when they could talk together about particular ideas and ask questions. As such, body mapping in groups of young people has the potential to not be an educational resource for young people themselves but offers researchers an ethnographic window into their social and cultural worlds.