Mapping informal settlements: a process for action

Mapping is a cultural project, creating and building the world as much as describing it. In informal settlements land ownership may be shaped as much by social dynamics, such as kinship, social ties, and conflict, as by harder elements such as land use and regulatory frameworks. Infrastructure services retrofit is necessary for public health in these contexts. This process needs to take into account the socio-cultural as much as the technical dimensions to understand both the physical and the social conditions and challenges embedded in these generally undocumented contexts. The mapping of these conditions can provide productive directions for responding to such challenges. Mapping tools and processes that embrace this complexity, provide effective mechanisms for growing the socio-material capital of communities. Such processes also build relationships and potential for growing the socio-material capital of communities.