Mapping the City: participatory mapping with young people

In this article we discuss an ongoing research project that uses participatory mapping to gain insights into the worlds of young people. For the last ten years we have worked with hundreds of people in schools, youth groups and at public events, asking them to use low-tech cartographic techniques to reveal the rich, complex and important aspects of their lives missing from most depictions of cities. We explain the importance of such work and the approaches to mapping used in the project, and explore some of the insights gleaned from over 2000 maps produced.