1194 | 313 | Carto-therapy: making sense of people’s mobility and displacement | Nuria Benach Rovira, Núria Font-Casaseca
Displacements involving significant changes in the characteristics of the environment, social relations or daily practices, create tensions, stress, even traumas. In the case of non-forced displacement, it can mean a more or less difficult adaptation process. In the case of forced displacement, or if it is the usual environment that has been drastically transformed, it can result in real trauma (Coddington & Micieli-Voutsinas, 2017; Pain, 2021) or shock (Fullilove, 2016). Disorientation, confusion, and inability to understand one’s own spatial experience in changing contexts could be alleviated with improved knowledge of spatial trajectories. _x000D_
In this article, we explore the potential of maps as practical tools that people can collaboratively create to understand their own trajectory and share feelings and emotions with others. Mapmaking as a collective process could be revitalizing and healing at the individual level. But it could also enhance support networks or mutual support at the collective level, or become the basis for more general political reflections (Amilhat Szary A.L., Medkjian S. 2015a)._x000D_
To support our proposal, we have conducted two different projects. The first one with a group of Spanish women who have moved from an urban to a rural residence. The second, with a group of young sub-Saharan migrants to Europe._x000D_
Although we fully agree with the need to put people’s feelings and emotions into maps that too usually do not include them (Rekacewicz P., 2016), we want to state here the benefits and usefulness of putting maps into people’s lives._x000D_
Nuria Benach Rovira, Núria Font-Casaseca
Universitat de Barcelona
ID Abstract: 313