0. About the workshop

The workshop was conducted in November 2022 under the scope of the New Scots Digital Inclusion project. In particular, the social cartography was a participatory activity that explored how the New Scots community perceive, interact, and represent the city of Aberdeen. For pursuing it, the cartography was orientated towards the identification of three types of places (happy, confusing, and shared) that allow to understand how the community experience their places, and how they influence or not in their perception of Aberdeen as a home.

The workshop was conducted in the Aberdeen Winter Gardens. It started with a 1 hour visit to the gardens followed by a participatory mapping session in the Education Room in the same venue. The workshop lasted approximately 2 hours and a half.

The activities that were conducted were:

• Aberdeen word cloud: the participants made a brainstorming activity orientated to speak about the different meanings and their perception of the word Aberdeen.

• Participatory cartography: every participant started to draw its individual map of Aberdeen, following two main emotions: happy and confusing places. Afterwards, we had a group discussion about the maps.

1. The participants

The participants are persons who arrived to Aberdeen from different countries and are currently living in the city, some of them are refugees. The call for the participants was made through GRECs Drop In Language Café sessions, followed by group meetings in different accommodation facilities around the city as is the case of the Afghan Settlement.

Before the workshop, the Digital Inclusion Project Worker communicated to the participants about the consent form, a document that describes the scope of the project, the uses of the data collected and the right to withdraw of the activities. In the session of the 14th November the participants agreed to it.

In contrast, the document was also shared with the Afghan community but unfortunately they didn't agreed to sign it, so the activity couldn't be developed with them. The main reason why the Afghan community didn't participated and agreed with the document is due their institutional fatigue, which means that the low response from different institutions and organisations regarding to their needs made them sceptical about enrolling with new organisations.

2. Aberdeen Word Cloud

Aberdeen is a word that connects granite, sea and the riverside in a mix of emotions. Talking about the different meanings of Aberdeen provided an opportunity for exploring the memories and their everyday in the city. The first element that appeared in the word cloud is the absence of any governmental or institutional reference, as it can be the Aberdeen City Council or other organisations that provide support to the community. The second element was the strong association of Aberdeen with the environmental features of the city, the particularity of its weather, the importance of the green spaces (i.e. parks and natural reserves) and the identification of a few spots where it is possible to identify local animals. It must be highlighted that most of the participants in the exercise identified that the beach is one of the most important landmarks of the city, as a place for peace, relaxation and enjoyment. It is also important to highlight that the participants identify the city and its inhabitants as kind and friendly people.

2.1. Silences of the word cloud

The word cloud positions the lived experience in Aberdeen as a transit area, which means that most of the words express the notion of Aberdeen outside the idea of home. The second element that should be highlighted is that most of the participants had a intermediate level of English or are enrolled in an English course in the city. This is important because for the group the access to ESOL provision is not a challenge. In a similar way, the word cloud didn't show the arts as part of the everyday life.

3. Images and maps of Aberdeen

The participatory maps of Aberdeen have a close relationship in how the institutional maps of the city are drawn, having the sea as the principal reference for establishing the boundaries of the city, and highlighting the role of the parks and the Dee and Don rivers. In a similar way as the Aberdeen Word Cloud, the maps illustrate the role of the weather in the place-experience of the city. The time that is shown in the maps is also another important output. The beach area is one of the happy places for the participants, that is expressed as a place to expend an afternoon or to relax while observing the sunset.

3.1. Shape

The maps were drawn under the premise of identifying an image that could represent Aberdeen, and that could be used to represent different emotions in the city. While some of the maps created a shape of the city with boundaries around the sea front and its distance to the "city centre", there are mixed images that represent the parks or other buildings as their image of the city.

3.2. Colours

The use of the colours in the maps is an expression on how the participants relate with the weather, the environment and the feelings of the city. Most of the parks and the river images have a close relationship with the presence of colourful flowers and with positive emotions. This element is accompanied with the use of trees, and how the autumn influences the choice of colours and presence of leaves. It must be highlighted that the beach is a brighter area that is associated to the emotions of peace and happiness, and as some participants refer to it as a place to go with their families.

In opposition, the urban infrastructure is tougher and is in its majority represented with darker colours or with the traditional grey colour of the granite. The "greyscale" of the buildings develops in the participants an emotion of sadness and "boredness". Also, the grey is commonly used for describing the high density buildings.

3.3. Landmarks

The maps use the landmarks as elements to reference their position towards the city and create different distances and interactions. The participants who used the bridges used them as a narrative to place their favourite area in the city so they can place positive emotions. In the same way, once the landmarks are getting closer to the city centre, they have a strong emotion of distance and lack of interaction. In one of the cases, the building of the Aberdeen City Council is seen as a confussing place, that the person identified as not having a clear idea of what the people in there do.

Another element that we can highlight from the maps is that the individual experience is guiding the place-based experience of the participants. This means that there is a low number of community spaces that were represented. However, the Drop In Language Cafe, known by the participants as Language Club or Speaking Club, creates a positive impact in their experience as it is associated with a happy place with laughs, and where people can share with others. Also, Nescol is referred as a happy place , highly recommended for meeting different people and to learn new things.

4. Voids in the maps?

There are multiple elements that need a further exploration in the place-based experience of the participants. The first one is the relationships outside the axis King Street + Union Street, which can be associated to the location of the work, residence or the bus routes. Its important to highlight that the experience and the storytelling of the participants is almost centred in the main roads and there is a low interaction with other streets around Aberdeen.

Under this perspective, the centrality of the parks and outdoor spaces is also an indicator on the low presence of other spaces of socialization or community gathering. This element is particularly interesting in the sense that there are several hubs in the city that support minority ethnic groups, and the only one that was highlighted was GREC's Drop In Language Café. In a similar way, most of the participants have kids and the spaces of the museums, performing arts, schools and libraries are invisible in the maps.

It is important to show that the institutional buildings of the city are also invisible. The low reference to GPs (only one map referenced the Hospital), Dental Practices, or the City Council premises. This lack of spatial reference contrasts significantly with the conversations about the access to the different services and support in the city. It is important to mentioned that the orientation of the map compacts the city into the Eastern area, with an extension towards Duthie Park and the river Dee.

4.1. Social bonds

Place-based experiences that expose a social bond are associated to outdoor areas of Aberdeen, being the sea front, Seaton and Duthie Park, Grec Drop In Language Cafe and in one case are the principal references for positive impact. One of the characteristics the social bonds places is that they offer an opportunity to have the place-based an individual and a family experience, which in other words expresses that these places are shared experiences.

4.2. Social bridge

During the workshop we work under the category of confusing places to those place-based experiences that had a negative impact in the interaction with the city. While most of the participants were keen to identify the sea front as a positive experience associated to be calm and relaxed; the sea front also showed for a participant homeless people in the area which was shocking. In a similar way, Union Street and the granite buildings create an emotional distance for other participants that associate the grey colour with sadness.

It must be mentioned that one person identified the Aberdeen Football Club stadium as a happy place.

ESOL is probably the main driver of the social bridge places, being centred in the positive role of the Grec Drop In Language Cafe and feeling of meeting new people and have a happy experience. The principal void in these types of places is the lack of recognition of community centres or religious places that in other contexts are the central key for creating the bonds with the cities or the territories.

4.3. Social Linkages

The participants identified two places that can be classified as social linkages: the North East Scotland College -Nescol- and Marschall College -offices of the Aberdeen City Council-. While Nescol is perceived as a positive experience as the participants can attend to different courses (currently is enrolled in an ESOL course) it provides a space for interacting with other communities of the city, and have a new learning space that is nourished through making new friends.

In opposition to this, the premises of the Aberdeen City Council appear as a confusing place as much of the information and resources for support are not clearly communicated, creating a low engagement.

The main finding in this workshop was that most of the participants did not identified other social linkages places as libraries, museums, performing arts venues or hubs. Following this idea, the social linkages still as a void in their everyday life and creates a distance between the institutional services and the citizen experience. Only one person identified the location of the school.

5. What to do next?

• As it can be seen in the Google Map of the Social Cartography there is a clear perception of the city towards the East, that is accessed through the axis King Street - Union Street and the Sea front. It is important on this front to build a partnership with other local organisations as Aberdeen Ramblers or Shmu for finding new paths that can expand the idea of the city and construct new memories.

• It is important to highlight the role of community centres and local libraries in the construction of a community life. As it is shown in the maps, the places that connect with other communities have a positive impact in their emotions around the city. An opportunity to liaison with the local activities can be important, but it will require a major mapping exercise with the city council for acknowledging the local organisations or interest groups.

• There is a need to develop a wider exercise of deep mapping of the social bonds places in a contrast between how they were in their countries of origin and how they are in Aberdeen. The relevance of this exercise is to show the expectations and realities that the New Scots experience during their settlement.

Volunteers' Maps

It must be highlighted that also our volunteers elaborated their own maps of Aberdeen, which are including in this section.