Participatory mapping in Latin America : a tool for adult education for social change

Abstract

As with many other sciences, the field of cartography has developed based on the exclusion of other forms of knowledge of the people from the South. The purpose of this article is to discuss Participatory Mapping (Social cartography) both as a possibility for adult education for social change and for giving voice to social groups, who were historically denied the right to speech, the possibility of sharing their knowledge about space. Based on recent examples, especially in Latin America, it argues that during the mapping activity there is a process of learning exchange between the scholar’s knowledge and the local communities’ knowledge of the mapped spaces where they live.