The document explores using cultural mapping to design cultural experience models. It discusses defining culture broadly to include community assets. Cultural mapping identifies cultural resources like places, demographics, and relationships. It can help with strategic planning by mapping tangible and intangible cultural assets like spaces, festivals, heritage, beliefs, and values. The research positions that culture should be defined by what communities consider cultural.

1. EXPLORING THE USE OF CULTURAL MAPPING IN
DESIGNING CULTURAL EXPERIENCE MODEL
SAAD AQEEL ALZAROONI
SPRING 2010

2. Introduction
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3. My thesis explores the strategic meaning of cultural resources. It is intended to generate thoughts and conversations, and to
create opportunities that could become available if community works together to map their cultural resources.
Understanding culture as resources for human and community development, rather than merely as cultural products and
commodities, opens possibilities of a great value, and when our understanding of culture is inclusive and broader than the
traditionally Eurocentric of “high/elite culture”, then we have increased the assets within which we can address community and
civic goals.
In approaching the research, I started with the question: what elements include in the term culture? How can we describe cultural
resources as strategic assets and how do we know it when we see it?
The complexity surrounding the term culture and the dynamic connections with other areas require innovative tools that enables
strategic planning and integral use of cultural resources. Cultural mapping can be very useful in this regard. So what is cultural
mapping.
This diagram represents the context of my topic in which cultural resources is the center of a place feeding into different aspects
of development in areas of community concerns such as economic development, health, education and training, and tourism and
place marketing.
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4. Context
Community Development
Economic
development
Housing
Education and Urban design and
Training planning
Tourism and Place
Marketing Environmental
Planning
Health
Relationship of cultural resources with other community concerns
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5. What is cultural mapping?
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6. Design Solution
A map is a visual representation of an area—a symbolic depiction highlighting relationships between elements of
that space.
Places Demographics Assets
Systems Flows Relationships
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7. Cultural mapping “is the process of identifying and investigating cultural
assets in the community and it strengths
- that are either tangible or intangible…”.
Cultural Planning toolkit. Creative City of Canada (2008), p.6
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8. Literature review
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9. Topic analysis
Cultural planning
Cultural mapping In order to better understand the different
models and themes around cultural
mapping , I have looked at a number of
Concept mapping frameworks for different disciplines that
can help explain the strategic importance
of cultural resources.
This diagram shows zooming into the
proposed design solution. It illustrates the
direction of the literature review starting
with an overview of Cultural Planning and
the strategic use of culture, moving toward
Zooming-in a medium view by discussing cultural
mapping, and then it zooms into Concept
Mapping which shaped the direction
Medium view toward the design solution.
Wide view
Literature review zooms from general to particular
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10. In the following I will define the major poles of the debate concerning the term culture and its strategic use.
In the literate there no shortage in describing the term culture. It has been used widely in different disciplines.
For example, anthropological perspective, views culture as a process or a product of individual or group activities. Based on this
principle, culture may be defined as the total complex of spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features that
characterize a social group.
Likewise, in tourism and cultural events management, the concept of culture is perceived as product and identifies the symbolic
meanings attached to cultural events in its conceptual approach.
Similarly, the term culture has been used to identify cultural assets and needs for development purposes. This strategic movement
operates with a broad definition of culture.
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11. Literature review
major poles of the debate
Anthropological a process of individual or group activities in society
perspective
Cultural Tourism product and identifies the symbolic meanings attached to events
Culture
Europe strategic broad definition of culture to identify cultural assets
approach and needs for development purposes
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12. Position in the debate
Culture is what counts as Holistic
culture to the people involved view
This thesis, position its debates on the contention
that “Culture is what counts as culture to the
people involved”. This broad-based perspective
enables the development of a holistic model.
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13. In doing this research, I was bearing in mind that the value of culture cannot be expressed only with
statistics or based on pure quantitative conclusions without considering the human aspect. Therefore, the
term cultural resources in this thesis has two dimensions:
tangibles and non-tangibles. Culture also has its dynamic connections and flow, which can draw some
domains
Tangibles
Cultural
Resources
Intangibles
Concept Map shows the diversity of cultural
resources
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14. Creative Cultural Spaces and
Industries Facilities
performance
Festivals Community Cultural
and Events Organizations
Tangibles
heritage Creative
industry
Natural Cultural Beliefs Literary
Heritage Cultural
Heritage Attitudes
Resources
Intangibles
Audio-
visual Values
Religions
Customs
tourism
Visual arts
Concept Map shows the diversity of cultural
resources
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15. Methodology / Discussion
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16. The methodology in this thesis is a blend of quantitative and qualitative research.
Furthermore, a key component in this thesis is the idea of visualizing the complexity surrounded the term cultural
resources. This has inspired me to use this tool to demonstrate the complexity of how people engage in defining
cultural resources in their communities.
Idea visualization
Methodology Interdisciplinary thinking
Information Concept
graphic mapping
Social
mapping
Human and cultural
Ethnographic geography
Community
Quantitative Strategy and scenario
Qualitative well-being building
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17. I wanted to propose a methodology where the end user
will have the opportunity to share his/her
understanding of what and how the cultural resources
in the community can be expanded and better utilized
to contribute to development. And also I needed a
visual method that enable me to discover the
relationship between fact, the context and the
connections.
And to be strategic in my approach, I shifted my
conceptual framework from being a problem-focused to
a building capacity-focused. Also, the approach is
attentive to dialogue in which the process is based on
community consultation and participatory research.
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18. Key features
Dynamic Mapping method has the ability to capture the
complexity and the dynamic of connections between the
material and non-material dimensions of culture. Unlike
previous models e.g., cultural survey or inventory,
cultural mapping offers visual snapshots and combines
the structure and statistical support of quantitative
Transformative method, while maintaining the participatory aspect of
qualitative research.
Inclusive
The value of this method lies in its capacity to engage
people in an inclusive and participatory setting to define
and assess the current cultural landscape in the
community and create a framework for future cultural
development plans.
Characteristics of Cultural Mapping
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19. Key features
Advantages Disadvantages
Cultural
Mapping
Getting fresh perspective
Community buy-in
Comprehensive view of cultural
resources
Time
Locating gaps and assessing needs
Cost
Locating overlaps
Figure 6 Force field diagram of cultural mapping
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20. Conclusion & Future direction
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21. Despite the limitations and challenges surrounded in cultural mapping exercise, it demonstrates a potential for
broaden and enhancing our understanding of the qualitative dimensions of how people experience, interpret and
value diversity of cultures in which they participate. Mapping is more than gathering data, it…
 Is multidimensional
 Comines quantitative and qualitative
 Enables collective management and decision making
 Has practical use for culture and non cultural interests
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22. Future direction
Deliver Define
(Winter 2011) The (Winter 2010)
Writing idea
up results Research Research
Testing results puzzle questions
against research Topic
questions The
analysis
research
life-cycle
Scope
Synthesis Purpose
Concept
Data Data Methodology
Development
analysis collection Model Hypothesis
Do Samples Design
Variables
(Fall 2010) (Spring 2010)
Figure 10 The place of research design in the research process
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23. fin
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24. B I O G R A P H I C A L S T A T E M E N T
Saád Aqeel is a graduate student in Design Management program. His research interests lie in
exploring the way design can serve as a vehicle for social innovation and community engagement.
His thesis explores the multiple uses of cultural mapping methods to understand the complexity
surrounding cultural resources and its strategic use for development purposes. Saád holds BA in
Social Development and MS in Social Administration. As Saád continues his educational journey,
he is striving to explore innovative learning opportunities in design strategies that could be applied
to social design or to achieve cultural competence.
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25. Concept of Wide view
culture
Medium view
Cultural planning
Concept mapping
Zooming-in
Proposed design solution
Mental mapping
Cultural mapping Medium view
Cultural
Wide view
resources
Figure 2 Literature review zoom from general to particular
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