Carlin2017
| Carlin2017 | |
|---|---|
| BibType | ARTICLE |
| Key | Carlin2017 |
| Author(s) | Andrew Carlin |
| Title | Navigating the walkways: Radical inquiries and mental maps |
| Editor(s) | |
| Tag(s) | EMCA, Walking, Mental, Foundationalism, Public Space |
| Publisher | |
| Year | 2017 |
| Language | English |
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| Month | |
| Journal | Ethnographic Studies |
| Volume | 14 |
| Number | |
| Pages | 24-48 |
| URL | Link |
| DOI | doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.823092 |
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Abstract
This paper provides consideration of “mental maps” as an analytic device, and the im- portation of foundational theorising in new disciplinary environments. “Mental maps” – as representations, mental imagery, even a shared “mental topography” – is a popular and readily available device with which to conceptualise how we orient to our world (Gould & White 1974). The deployment of “mental maps” is frequent and extends be- yond psychology (Blaut et al. 2003; Lloyd 2000; Lobben 2004; Xirogiannis et al. 2004), as conceptualisations reliant upon mental representations and cognition theories en- croach upon other disciplines. This does not mean that the psychologistic reductions in- volved in the importation of mental maps as interdisciplinary work are diluted: the cog- nitivism of mental maps is preserved in new interdisciplinary settings. Mental maps, as “explanatory fctions” (Coulter 1979), provide cover for analysts searching for patterns that draw together a patchwork of “data” (e.g. Matei et al. 2001). What I suggest in this paper is that mental maps are themselves iterative of foundational- ist approaches; that mental maps are inappropriate means to describe social organisa- tional phenomena; that the appeal to mental maps adds unnecessary complexity to analyses; and that mental maps work to distance the reader of analyses from the phe- nomena that they purportedly describe.
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