Parish Maps

An Instrument of Encounter

Abstract

Our paper aims at illustrating specific ways of mapping surrounding landscape using the Parish Maps. Named after the parish, the smallest unit in a community-based area, they appear as a subjective means to render the outer space. In fact, since they were first experimented by the English Association "Common Ground", they have been used with the specific purpose of revealing the dwellers' point of view on the area they live in: the underlying idea, in fact, is that our landscape is made of different and unique points of view conveyed by those who concur to its making. On the basis of our research experiences over a span of almost 20 years of work using the Parish Maps within the framework of local communities, we believe that these maps can prove to be a useful tool in education contexts too