Story-telling about place: Engaging citizens in cultural mapping

Abstract

In the Province of Ontario, Canada, there is a well-established and detailed methodology for mapping tangible cultural assets, such as theatres, museums, and art galleries. However, methodologies for mapping intangible cultural assets, such as spiritual values, cultural identity, social cohesion, and heritage, are much less developed. Despite these procedural difficulties, many communities in Ontario have attempted to map their intangible cultural assets. Several of these efforts engaged citizens in story-telling about the community in order to uncover the intangible cultural dimensions of the community. This article describes and analyzes the efforts of communities to tell “stories of place” and to situate these stories within a cultural mapping protocol that heavily emphasizes tangible cultural assets. Building on a study of 64 cultural mapping projects in Ontario between 2009 and 2012, it examines how citizen engagement was linked with the mapping of intangible cultural assets in these communities, and highlights several of the most interesting projects. It also assesses the limitations of mainstream cultural mapping methodologies in capturing intangible cultural assets and tentatively suggests several elements of an alternative methodology that might address some of these shortcomings.