House, Home and Place ... a Visual Mapping Tool

House, home and place‌ A VISUAL MAPPING TOOL

for fir land m e and anager s

“The mapping is a visual research tool …

It is a qualitative tool that gives a greater richness and depth (to interviews) than traditional survey(s) (methods) ... It is a catalyst for people to access their deeply held memories and the values that underpin their social understandings of where they live.”

A house is where you live …

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House, home and place…

… a home is how you live in the landscape.

VISUAL MAPPING TOOLKIT 3

What’s it about?

Picture drawing a circle around ‘home’ on a map and it probably extends well beyond the property.

For most, home exists within the surrounding landscape, a place filled with emotional meaning, as well as social and physical/environmental connections, reflecting aspects of our sense of self, where we come from and what we value.

Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre research indicates that fire and land managers can benefit from understanding community values, perspectives and insights in targeting and tailoring safety and engagement programs in fire and hazard-prone communities.

The idea is that by considering personal as well as community values and priorities, you can explore mutually beneficial and sustainable outcomes for managing risk, enhancing safety and supporting recovery.

Information and insights captured in the process can help explain questions such as how and why people behave in the face of bushfire risk, how and whether they physically prepare their properties, and how they want the “assets” that they value to be managed by agencies.

The process also forges stronger links between fire and land managers and their communities.

The tool featured in this resource is based on the research method used by the University of Melbourne researchers in their Social Construct of Fuels in the Interface project.

This resource makes the method accessible to everyone.

It includes background on the research, details the methodology, how it can be applied and how to use it.

Key elements include background videos, as well as a downloadable How to Guide and related templates.

The challenge is how to capture and optimise these insights effectively to enhance fire and land management education and engagement efforts.

Social cognitive mapping is a proven, but simple and effective visual or ‘mud’ mapping tool and research technique that enables users to unlock the values and meaning people attach to their surroundings.

Who could use it?

The visual mapping and research tool, known as social cognitive mapping, could be used by: • Fire and land managers who develop and/or implement community engagement , education and risk management programs as well as recovery strategy and operations.

• Community engagement and development practitioners.

• Community education and safety practitioners.

• Bushfire education and community safety practitioners.

• Community volunteers.

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“This sort of visual method— place mapping that is combined with an interview process, which itself engages with the local person’s construction of their landscape, presents a better way to engage with communities and their fire management practices and understandings of fire risk.”

House, home and place…

How can it be used?

How does it work?

Social cognitive mapping involves a visual mapping method, combined with a research/interview technique, which is delivered in a half-day workshop format by one or more facilitators. The workshop is followed up by an evaluation meeting within three days.

During the workshop, participants are encouraged to draw or ‘mud map’ their impression and perceptions of home and the surroundings on butcher paper. As they construct their mental picture, they draw on and construct memories, and explain the meanings and connections they associate with their home and place.

The approach concentrates on the interplay between objective knowledge: ‘facts’, data, ‘truths’ and intuitive knowledge, a harder to access area for researchers and in engaging in community activities.

The process is structured, but the key is to create a climate of trust and two-way interaction. In this setting, facilitators and participants can have open and meaningful conversations about factors such as hazards and risk.

Understand community values and priorities for preparedness and recovery

Capture and utilise insights to inform fire and land management practice

Engage at risk and hard to reach communities

Identify obstacles and barriers to mitigation

Build

“If you are an interviewer in a faceto-face interview and you ask a question, the person focuses on you with their answer. But if you are an interviewer watching them draw a map they never leave their own space. They are always interacting with what they are drawing because they are using that as a prompt, not you.”

trust and interaction

Support community and individual decision making on preparedness

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“Memory is not just what we remember; it is something we actively create, alone and with others. This is an important finding for people trying to understand and change community behaviour. We are often passive in the way that we think about other people’s stories, whereas if you are thinking about changing those stories you need to be more active in listening to the construction of those stories.”

NO PLACE LIKE HOME

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House, home and place‌

Your tools

The Social Cognitive Mapping Workshop: A How To Guide

link to PDF

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Workshop sample agenda

Workshop sample invitation letter

Workshop sample questions

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More resources The social cognitive mapping tool is based on a research methodology designed by academics at the University of Melbourne. For organisers or participants interested in understanding the theoretical underpinning of the workshop, the following reading list provides an informative entry point.

Fire Note (2014) We all view our surroundings differently.

Bushfire CRC/AFAC Issue 121. (PDF) Bruce, D. (2013) Living in a fire landscape. Fire Australia Winter 2013 Edition pp. 32-33. (PDF) Beilin, R. and Reid, K. (2014) Putting ‘it’ together: mapping the narratives of bushfire and place in two Australian landscapes.

Final Report published by Bushfire CRC and the School of Land & Environment, University of Melbourne. (PDF) Reid, K. and Beilin, R. (2014) Where’s the fire?

Co-constructing bushfire in the everyday landscape.

Society and Natural Resources. 27(2) Reid, K. and Beilin, R. (2012) Ecological and Social “Place” Mapping to Assist Bushfire Management and Research. in Fox R.L. (Ed), 2012, Proceedings of 3rd Human Dimensions of Wildland Fire Conference, 17-19 April, Seattle, United States.

Among its key findings, the researchers found: A sense of “home” extends into and includes the landscape. Being at home during a fire is therefore about protecting values greater than the house. There is however a tension between homeowner responsibility for mitigation before a fire and lack of control during a fire.

The ways people order and prioritise their memory of fire is important. Memory may be a forward construct that helps people deal with future risk. Mapping as a method seems to trigger a memory response that helps people connect intuitive and rational ways of knowing about fire; they connect their social and ecological (biophysical) worlds in this process.

More information?

To discuss the research project or application, facilitation and evaluation of the social cognitive mapping tool, contact Professor Ruth Beilin via email: rbeilin@unimelb.edu.au

Acknowledgements

Beilin, R. and Reid, K. (2015) It is not a ‘thing’ but a ‘place’: reconceptualising assets in the context of fire risk landscapes. International J of Wildland Fire. 24(1) 130137http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/WF14035

AFAC expresses its gratitude to the research project team members Professor Ruth Beilin and Dr Karen Reid of the School of Land & Environment, University of Melbourne, and Mike Wouters, Department of Environment, Water & Natural Resources, South Australia.

Reid, K. and Beilin, R. (2014) Making the landscape ‘home’: narratives of bushfire and place in Australia, Geoforum http://authors.elsevier.com/a/1Q1qg3pIL5fag

We also acknowledge the contribution of Tom Lowe of Polygraph Productions for content development and video production.

About the research

Copyright © 2015 Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council Limited

The landscape means different things to different people.

‘Social constructions’ strongly influence what people value in landscapes and how they think about the management of these valued assets.

The Social Construct of Fuels in the Interface project, led

by Professor Ruth Beilin of the University of Melbourne, for the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre investigated underlying social and ecological values associated with the landscape and highlighted how understanding the interface between scientific-ecological and local-intuitive knowledge could contribute to fire management.

Using a social cognitive, place-mapping approach, the researchers interviewed residents in communities within two contrasting Australian landscapes – the Adelaide Hills and the Southern Grampians. Research participants were asked to ‘mud map’ their social and ecological landscapes at local and regional scales.

All rights reserved. Copyright in this publication is subject to the operation of the Copyright Act 1968 and its subsequent amendments. Any material contained in this document can be reproduced, providing the source is acknowledged and it is not used for any commercialisation purpose whatsoever without the permission of the copyright owner.

Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council Limited (ABN 52 060 049 327) Level 1, 340 Albert Street East Melbourne Victoria 3002 Telephone: 03 9419 2388 Facsimile: 03 9419 2389 Email: afac@afac.com.au Internet: http://www.afac.com.au

Disclaimer: This document is constructed from consultation and research between Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council Limited (AFAC), its Members and stakeholders. It is intended to address matters relevant to fire, land management and emergency services across Australia and New Zealand.

The information in this document is for general purposes only and is not intended to be used by the general public or untrained persons. Use of this document by AFAC Member agencies, organisations and public bodies does not derogate from their statutory obligations. It is important that individuals, agencies, organisations and public bodies make their own enquiries as to the currency of this document and its suitability to their own particular circumstances prior to its use.

AFAC does not accept any responsibility for the accuracy, completeness or relevance of this document or the information contained in it, or any liability caused directly or indirectly by any error or omission or actions taken by any person in reliance upon it.

Before using this document or the information contained in it you should seek advice from the appropriate fire or emergency services agencies and obtain independent legal advice.