Making Maps - Action/Reflection Project

ACTION

One good way to unpack the organization and function of the city is to get out and study it. Diagram a city block near to your church at a busy part of your city or town. It should preferably be a block with mixed use, with features such as: retail businesses, residential buildings, restaurants, services, specialty shops, etc. Please make sure to include both sides of the street, i.e. both sides of each side of the block.

·   Downtowns are often not the best idea. Many downtowns in America can be somewhat dead, and yield little information for a local church. In addition, our interest is in reconnecting the church to its community, not downtown.

·    Once you have discovered a place to study near your place of ministry, be sure to check everywhere you see services: retail, social, and religious. Including in your search: alleys, basements (where applicable), particularly multiple floors, etc.

·   Identify the businesses (the position, size, and type of the business), offices, civic buildings, social service agencies, traffic patterns and parking, bus stops, fences and barriers, vacant lots, parks, single family homes, apartments, etc. on the block. Include any businesses, professionals, etc., found in multi-storied buildings.

·   Identify the physical/ spatial placement of objects (both utilitarian, and symbolic).

·   Show the use of space, symbols, barriers, people movements, etc.

REFLECTION

One example comes from when we lived in Southern California. I took a class of graduate students on a walk around one city block in Pasadena’s civic center adjacent to Fuller Seminary. We walked by a Japanese museum, City Hall, a large indoor shopping mall, restaurants, a pharmacy, the main police station, several large office buildings, and more. Most of the critical elements of urban function and organization were found in that one square block.

Use several sheets of paper to jot down your findings. Draw the block on a poster-sized piece of cardboard, and place each of items you found where they belong on the map. Finally, interpret your diagram. Ask questions like, “How does what I discovered on this block instruct me about how this city is organized and functions?” “Why is that particular business, store, home, etc. in that particular place?” “How can the placement of the buildings, the space, and the symbols I found, affect the lives of those who use the block?”

Resource:

Crane, Julia G., and M. V. Angrosino. Field Projects in Anthropology: A Student Handbook. 2^nd ed. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, Inc., 1984.