Repairing the COVID city: Collaborative comparative mapping in Mexico City and beyond

Keywords: participatory mapping, sensible mapping, care, urban comparison, aesthetic
Abstract Type: Virtual Paper Abstract

Abstract

Drawing on an asynchronous collaborative mapping of COVID urban experiences in Mexico, Hanoi, Montreal and Paris, as well as on a 14h online collaborative mapping workshop with two different groups of women in Mexico City, this article analyzes the powerful function of cartographic language as a means of linguistic, disciplinary, positionality, and cultural translations. It highlights the importance of mapping in a global comparative process. The paper offers a chronological analysis of “personal worlds” mapping initiatives at three specific moments: June 2020, May 2021, and March 2022. As the pandemic was evolving, so did the functions and effects of alternative COVID mapping. A first objective of this paper is thus methodological, reflecting on why alternative pandemic mapping was important, on how to map personal experiential worlds digitally, and what does collective COVID mapping do. A second objective of this paper is to analyze how people responded to their disrupted worlds through acts of repair, and how from these microscale gestures, the future caring city is emerging. Theoretically, the paper draws on post-representational cartographic debates to analyze mapping as an aesthetic form of political action. Methodologically, the paper reflects on the challenges of conducting digital participatory mapping workshops without using existing participatory mapping platforms.