Cultural Mapping Research Articles

The Groups of Caroling Lads from Făgăraș Land (Romania) as Niche Tourism Resource

Contemporary tourism favors niche offers and heritage tourism is successful niche tourism. The cultural mapping of Făgăraș Land (Romania), accomplished during a project conducted by Transilvania University of Brașov, highlights the groups of caroling lads as a main local resource of intangible cultural heritage. The field research indicates that during winter, celebrations of the life of rural communities are organized around the group of lads. Currently, the group only performs a ritual role, but in the past the group had community work attributes, which could be resumed. Additionally, a sustainable heritage tourism can be developed around the groups of lads from Făgăraș Land. That is a form of niche tourism based on the aforementioned concept of foster Christmas relatives. The concept was outlined during the field research carried out as part of the project and refers to host families providing tourists access to the performance of group of lads within the community during the winter celebrations. Resuming the old attributes of the group of lads along with niche tourism could contribute to the sustainable development of rural communities and building local cultural identity. Additionally, they would also consolidate the status held by group members within the community.

Challenging spaces and formats of culture in the city: highlights on the future of cultural heritage management

This paper focuses upon the relationship between culture and society in the urban environment. The first section introduces the social and urban changes of our time from a critical theory perspective, integrating socioeconomic and urban studies: what emerges the fading of social boundaries and the emersion of new political claims arising from cultural instances; the second section focuses on the discrepancies between such changes and the cultural offer, still anchored to rigid heritage preservation, never meeting new forms of cultural expression. This stern dichotomy needs to be faced through a paradigm shift, which is dealt with in the third section: some best practices across Europe are selected, highlighting the need to focus on cross-sector partnerships, vertical integration, and a public support aimed at favouring the diffusion of culture on multiple social layers. The map of culture is eventually redesigned, and new creative encounters are made by challenging the use of space in the urban scenario.

The White Gaze: Critical Reflections on the East-West Dichotomy

In his much quoted verse above Rudyard Kipling revealed something of the nucleus of the long-lived tradition of Orientalist thought. According to J.J. Clarke, the ambivalence of the West towards the East is age-old. This ambivalence largely stems from the difference in religion and culture that the two poles share. Religion, an act of cultural construction circulates in a particular form and culture thereby, can be said to be a definer of character. Every culture thus develops its own particular values and beliefs. Elucidating this concept further, the paper intends to examine this thought by applying Said’s study of Orientalism to hegemonically Western discourse about the East and seek to highlight the fact that the East-West dichotomy is a result of ‘selective cultural mapping’, a deliberate attempt to alienate the East. To lay bare the East-West dichotomy and highlight the West’s selective cultural mapping of the East, the paper will analyze E.M Forster’s A Passage to India (1924) and its movie adaptation by David Lean and will do a comparative study. Furthermore, I will concentrate on highlighting the West’s fear of islamophobia and the consequences arising from it with due reference to the movie Khuda Ke Liye (2007), a Pakistani Urdu movie by Shoaib Mansoor.

Time-Layered Cultural Map of Australia

This paper reports on an Australian project that is developing an online system to deliver researcher-driven national-scale infrastructure for the humanities, focused on mapping, time series, and data integration. Australian scholars and scholars of Australia worldwide are well served with digital resources and tools to deepen the understanding of Australia and its historical and cultural heritage. There are, however, significant barriers to use. The Time Layered Cultural Map of Australia (TLCMap) will provide an umbrella infrastructure related to time and space, helping to activate and draw together existing high-quality resources. TLCMap expands the use of Australian cultural and historical data for research through sharply defined and powerful discovery mechanisms. See https://tlcmap.newcastle.edu.au/

Разработка методики создания геоинформационной системы культурного наследия на примере Новосибирской области

The authors discuss the results of working at the development of methods for creating GIS of cultural heritage. A brief analysis of modern research in the field of geoinformation cultural heritage mapping had been made befor. The existing methods of creation GIS of cultural heritage objects basing upon the analysis of the performed experimental works are studied. The basic requirements to the methodology of GIS creation of cultural heritage objects are defined. The developed technique of creating GIS for cultural heritage objects on the basis of HTML, CSS and JavaScript-technologies is presented. In the course of the study, a prototype of the geographic information system “Cultural heritage of Novosibirsk region” was developed, it can be used by anyone for educational purposes, as well as by territorial agencies of cultural heritage protection, local governments, construction organizations, road enterprises, land use and subsoil use enterprises, educational and scientific organizations, as well as tour operators and other economic entities.

Organic, Planned or Both: Alserkal Avenue: An Art District by Entrepreneurial Action in an Organic Evolutionary Context

While Dubai's urban scene is dominated by planned and pre-designed developments, grassroots initiatives have always been present and have helped shape the trajectory of the city's evolution. In one case, an industrial area, Al Quoz, has seen the clustering of art businesses over a relatively short period turning it into a cultural destination. Accounting for most of such clustering, Alserkal Avenue became Dubai's art hot-spot that changed the cultural map of the city. This article describes the rise of Alserkal Avenue, not only as the result of the entrepreneurial action of the proprietors but also as a product of a complex melange of economic, cultural, and urban evolutionary processes that intertwine with the rise of the city itself.

Editors’ Letter

Editors’ Letter

A Metaphor Comprehension Method Based on Culture-Related Hierarchical Semantic Model

Usually a metaphor is encoded with rich cultural connotation, which signifies that culture plays a key factor in truly comprehending a metaphorically-used utterance. Given that, we developed a culture-related hierarchical semantic model to perform metaphor comprehension. Based on the character of a metaphor, to better represent context and background knowledge, we embedded word-level, attribute-level, perception-level, and context-level information into the model. Moreover, in the attribute-level, a culture mapping is developed to better use cultural information. We use a random walk algorithm to search for the most reasonable comprehension results. The model was tested in a nominal Chinese metaphor corpus. The results show the effectiveness of the model and demonstrate its advantages in understanding cultural metaphors.

The Use of Cultural Maps in Developing Intercultural Sensitivity: From Culture-Centrism to Culture-Relativism

The paper describes an experience of teaching intercultural communications to undergraduate students using a cultural mapping method. Students were asked to draw cultural-specific maps that reflected their own idea of the world and then to compare them with similar maps drawn by people from different countries. In the process of drawing, presenting, comparing and discussing the maps, students were forced to confront their own cultural preconceptions as well as to become aware of the extent to which their picture of the world is culturally determined.
 Keywords: intercultural communications, intercultural sensitivity, cultural maps, pedagogy, cultural relativism

Theorizing comic cons

When comics fandom emerged as a distinct media-oriented community in the 1960s, one of the things it brought with it from science-fiction fandoms was the convention. Buoyed by the synergistic relationship between Hollywood and the San Diego Comic-Con and the growing prominence of ‘geek’ culture, comic conventions, comic art festivals and related media fandom events across North America have enjoyed enhanced prestige, attention and attendance over the last fifteen to twenty years. But what kind of event are these ‘con events’? This article builds on a cultural mapping survey of convention organizers. The survey’s goal was to suggest something of the scope and diversity of the contemporary sector. Behind this variation, we define the con event as an organizational and cultural form that is (1) oriented to media, (2) audience-facing and (3) concerned with circulation.

PATRONAGE OF THE MINISTRY OF POSTS AND TELEGRAPHS OVER THE MUSEUM OF POST AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS IN WARSAW IN 1921–1939

In 1921, at the instigation and with the contribution of the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs, a post museum was founded in Warsaw. It was until 1950 that the Ministry continued to serve as the Museum’s sponsor supporting it. The establishment of the Museum under the auspices of the Ministry, being an organ of the central state administration, provided the institution with numerous benefits and essentially enabled its activity. The initiative was actually priceless; had it not been for the post department support, it would have been most likely impossible to establish the Museum in the first years following the end of WW I and Poland regaining independence. Throughout the 1920s and 30s, the Ministry organized social actions of collecting historical objects for the Museum, providing it with financing and factual backup, legal guidance, care for proper museum space, for the selection of appropriate museological staff, and last but not least, for the promotion of the Museum and its collections; at the same time, the Ministry made frequent donations to its subordinate institution. The activity of the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs, as well as the personal commitment of its ministers to the establishment, and later to the maintaining of the Museum on the cultural map of Poland’s capital, significantly contributed to the effective operation of the only Museum of Post and Telecommunications in Poland.

Mapping the Culture of Izmir Kemeraltı

İzmir kentinin her noktasında geçmişten günümüze hissedilen çok renkli kent kültürünün tanıklık mekânlarının başında Kemeraltı gelmektedir. Makale İzmir kent kimliği ve kültürünün önemli bir parçası olan Kemeraltı özelinde mimarlık, sanat, zanaat, moda, tekstil gibi tasarım alanların somut ve soyut değerlerini odağına alan bir tasarım kültürü haritalama pratiğini konu alır. Çalışma, konuya ilişkin güncel yazına katkıda bulunmanın yanı sıra, Kemeraltı’na odaklanan bu haritalama pratiğini, kültür turizminin ve kentsel turizmin önemli araçlarından kent kültürünün haritalanması çerçevesinden irdelemeyi amaçlanmaktadır. Yorumlayıcı (interpretive) bir araştırma yöntemiyle ele alınan çalışmanın kapsamı, turizm ve mimarlık alanlarındaki kültürel miras, koruma, sürdürülebilirlik tartışmalarından farklılaşarak, yeni kentsel-kültürel turizm faaliyetleri ve tasarım kültürünün haritalanması konularıyla sınırlandırılmıştır. Bu kültürel haritalamanın benzer kapsam ve nitelikteki alternatif çalışmaları gerçekleştirmeye ve irdelemeye zemin oluşturacağı düşünülmektedir.

Mapeamento cultural. Enfrentar o desafio de políticas e planeamento culturais mais participativos e pluralistas

The term cultural mapping refers to both an interdisciplinary field of research, encompassing an array of approaches used in diverse contexts as a tool and method of inquiry, organization, and presentation; and an insight-generating praxis, as a participatory planning and development tool embedded in “communal engagement and the creation of spaces to incorporate multivocal stories” (Duxbury and Saper, 2015: n.p.). The evolution of cultural mapping intertwines academic and artistic research with policy, planning, and advocacy contexts. Its current methodological contours have been informed by five main cultural mapping trajectories: community empowerment and counter-mapping, cultural policy, municipal governance, mapping as artistic practice, and academic inquiry. This article provides an overview of this field, identifies some of the objectives and issues with which researchers are currently engaging, and offers questions and suggestions to guide efforts to build closer connections with the realms of cultural policy and planning.

Continuity of Industrial Landscape: From Sümerbank Kayseri Textile Factory to AGU Sumer Campus

Cultural landscapes explain the evolution of human society and settlement under the influence of the physical constraints and or opportunities offered by the natural environment. It is possible to understand this evolution of industrial landscape by exposing the public memory of its time. Industrial and cultural landscape gives information about the production technology of it’ period and also clue about the settlement areas where the labor force that provides the production in the industrial landscape realizes the housing and socio-cultural activities. In this study Kayseri Sümerbank Textile Factory was selected as a case study, which had continued its function as a factory until 1999, then came to life as a university in 2014. In this study; cultural mapping that will reflect the daily life activities to be created after the in-depth interviews and participatory drawing techniques with the user group who have experienced the factory life in the past and experiencing the university campus life nowadays, then these data will be overlapped and visualized in a digital interface. The result of the study could show us to the continuity of the settlement between the past and present, changing daily life patterns depending on the changing function.

Динамика каспийских берегов в концепции “АТласа культурного и природного наследия Дагестана”

Atlas of the cultural and natural heritage of Dagestan is a comprehensive cartographic work, which displays objects of archeology, history, ethnography, socio-economic sphere and nature, cultural, historical and natural heritage. The development of the Atlas is based on previously acquired experience in creating the Geographic and other atlases of Dagestan and involves the use of a number of methodological innovations, one of which is the use of typical contour maps with different physical and geographical outlines of coastal territories in specific historical eras. We are talking primarily about the coastline of the Caspian Sea, which has noticeably changed in the historical timescale. This approach allows to map the main historical milestones of the interaction of resettlement systems and households of the inhabitants of the Mountain Country with a very dynamic natural environment of this region. So, archaeological maps revealing the sites of pre-historic humans within the modern borders of the Republic of Dagestan include the lines of the Caspian coast in the ancient periods of sea transgressions and regressions. The atlas includes maps showing information on the dynamics and evolution of the Caspian coast for different historical eras as a result of sea level fluctuations and the variability of the Dagestan hydrographic network and the dynamics of the Terek delta and the mouth of Sulak. The history of the Caspian Sea level fluctuations was reconstructed starting from the regressive phase of sea level stand during pre-Bakinian time, when sufficiently reliable geological and geomorphological data were available to estimate, the amplitude and age of level changes. The Bakinian transgression, which consisted of two stages: Early Bakinian and Late Bakinian took place in the beginning of the Brunnes Era. Even more data is available for reconstruction of Early and Late Khazarian, and subsequent transgressions and regressions of the Caspian Sea, the boundaries of which are reflected on the map of the Paleolithic Era. The Atlas is divided into two parts, the first is represented by historical and cultural maps, the second – by the maps on natural and economic heritage of the Mountain Country. The introductory section includes basic maps on physical geography, the modern administrative-territorial division of Dagestan and its position in the North Caucasus Federal District. In total and in accordance with the work plan, the Atlas includes 100 major maps and more than 30 inset maps. A total of about 50 scientists and practitioners with different scientific profiles from the Dagestan Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences institutes, Makhachkala universities, and Lomonosov Moscow State University took part in this work.

Finding Sense in Organization Studies: Assumptions and Features of K. Weick’s Sensemaking Approach

This article discusses some of the theoretical foundation of the sensemaking approach introduced by Karl Weick within the fields of organizational psychology and organizational theory. Weick, Sutcliffe, and Obstfeld wrote that “Sensemaking involves the ongoing retrospective development of plausible images that rationalize what people are doing” (2005: 409), or, in more general terms, making sense out of what is happening in order to reduce uncertainty and to act upon it. For this purpose, according to Weick, an individual deals with two questions: “What is going on? and, what should I do about it?” Answers to these questions and their following implications in the individual’s actions depend on the seven characteristics of the sensemaking: the individual’s identity, retrospective, enactment, social activity, ongoing [events and flux of experience], cues, and plausibility. Weick offers a “navigation of social space [of organization] with cultural maps in hand”, and draws inspiration from the analysis of jazz improvisation. His works, still lacking attention in Russia, offer an instrument for both crisis situations with dramatic “loss of sense” and quite common everyday events. Weick’s ideas were broadly developed within research on communication, identity, language, narratives, power, and other aspects of organizational activity. At the same time, sensemaking is believed to be one of the main theoretical inspirations for the processual approach in organization studies, which is focused on organizational becoming, or organizing.

Педагогические условия освоения традиционной музыкальной культуры Сирии будущими учителями музыки России

The article analyses ways to solve the problem of identifying pedagogical conditions for the development of traditional musical culture of Syria by future Russian teachers of music. To this end, the authors provide a theoretical rationale for the hypothesis, according to which the mental characteristics of the traditional musical culture of Syria are its „dialogue” in the ratio of ancient origins and influences, both Arab and European. The historical and theoretical basis for the development of the traditional musical culture of Syria by future Russian music teachers is periodization, which allows to consider Syrian vocal and instrumental music as an independent and original phenomenon on the map of musical cultures of the peoples of the world. Taking into account that the purpose of the study is not only a theoretical justification and testing the model of mastering by the future Russian music teachers the traditional musical culture of Syria, but also experimental testing of the model developed by the authors. The article describes the tasks and content of the statement, forming and verification stages of empirical research. On the basis of obtained results, the author makes a number of conclusions, noting that: the national image of Syria and its traditional musical culture is defined by the historically formed system of values, both related to Arab Islamic civilization and brought European influences. The model of study is represented as a structure of interconnected components: target, meaningful, revealing peculiarities of implementation of civilization, paradigm-pedagogical, intonation, and cultural approaches and reflexive. Implementation of the model implies the study by students of historical and theoretical aspects of formation and development of the traditional musical culture of Syria on the basis of cultural approach; comparative analysis as a way for future Russian teachers to understand the ethnonational nature of Syria ‘s traditional musical culture in the context of a paradigm-pedagogical approach; the interpretation and reflection of national self-awareness, as a way to allow learners to gain insights into the characteristic ethnic-intonation of Syria ‘s traditional musical culture based on an intonation approach.

The Passing Fads and Emergent Trends of Project Culture in Construction Industry

Project culture in construction industry is unique, distinguishing one project from others, and plays a role in the processing of construction projects. The aim of this paper is to conduct a holistic review of the extant literature and identify the future trends of project culture. The method of a systematic literature review was conducted to overview the extant articles on project culture in construction industry until 2019. After searching in ISI Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar, we obtained a total number of 31 papers and refinement was made by content analysis. Four aspects were analyzed: the nature of project culture, the diagnosis of project culture, factors influencing project culture, and research focus. It provides a map of project culture from philosophy paradigms. And findings show that research on project culture was mainly from the function paradigm (the integration position) in which culture can be manipulated for better project performance. A few from nonfunction paradigm (the fragment position) stressed sense making of project culture. This study proposes a framework consisting of a hybrid function/nonfunction paradigms and diagnoses project culture from explicit and implicit aspects. These findings make a firm foundation for the exploration of project culture from multiperspectives in theory and practice.

Критический анализ существующих подходов к созданию культурно-географических атласов

Cultural geography is a rather young and not completely institutionalized geographical science in the Russian realm. There are no cultural geographical atlases present in the state of the art, Russian classifications of thematic atlases, though one of the options includes “the atlases of culture”. A series of S.Ya. Suschiy’s atlases of the history of Russian culture and regional historical and cultural atlases may serve as some examples of atlases using the materials of cultural geography. These atlases are rarely original in terms of the means of cartographic visualizations. They are often merely historical or even hardly include any maps being only formally named as atlases while in reality looking like regional encyclopedias. The phonomena of cultural geography have received a certain development among thematic maps of complex atlases. Though the maps of cultural artifacts prevail in this case there are the traditions emerging of mapping cultural heritage and also of cultural geographical regionalization. There are such examples present in the volume “History. Culture” of the National atlas of Russia and also in some thematic products of neighboring disciplines like ethnic, ethnographic and ethnogeographic atlases. However, one can hardly witness any specific for cultural geography mapping means or approaches even in these latter cases. Mental maps could be regarded as potentially prospective trend for creating atlases specifically within cultural geography. In this regard, there is a need to overcome the existing dichotomy of mental maps like graphic means of picturing the human perceptions of their environments and traditional cartographic products focusing on mental representations. The prospect is likely to be focused on the complex cartographic decisions linking spatial representations and certain cultural landscapes.

Що за фронтирною неозначеністю? Yaroslav Polishchuk, Frontyrna identychnist: Odesa XX stilittia, Dukh i Litera, Kyiv 2019, 208 s.

The author of the review analyses the book of professor Yaroslav Polishchuk Boundary Identity. Odessa of the XX Century. This geopoetical study opens before its reader the whole world of the history and art of the city which played an important role on the cultural map of Ukraine. Speaking about the identity of Odessa and its inhabitants nowadays, we have to say that there are a lot of representations of it. The struggle between the images of the imperiled province and the contemporary Ukrainian port center influences the cultural identification of the city. The review reveals all the ways in which the researcher tries to represent the original image of this metropolis in artistic works and visions.