| title: | Maps of meaning: the case of Paldiski |
|---|---|
| reg no: | ETF5041 |
| project type: | Estonian Science Foundation research grant |
| subject: |
1.10-1.16. Bio-Geo Sciences 5.8. Human, Social and Economical Geography |
| status: | completed |
| institution: | Stockholm Environment Institute Tallinn Centre |
| head of project: | Tiina Peil |
| duration: | 01.01.2002 - 31.12.2003 |
| description: | The project aims at analysing different meanings local inhabitants and outsiders attribute to one place, how the ideas are expressed spatially, and how to use local (environmental) knowledge in planning and management. An approach where landscape is simultaneously a physical setting to be examined detachedly and subjectively experienced environment is adopted and thus a combination of methods and material of natural and social sciences is used. The main objective is to analyse the maps of meaning in Paldiski (the Pakri Peninsula and Islands), how they have been created, maintained and modified. A set of new techniques - geographical information system for participation (GIS-P) - will be applied for allowing an inclusion of various perceptions and combining, comparing, and enhacing the conventional spatial data. Possible explanations for the creation of various images are sought, the relationship between people and the environment examined and expert analyses compared with lay ideas. Local environmental knowledge has been demonstrated to contain information unobtainable from other sources and be of high quality when compared to data compiled by outside specialists and thus should be incorporated on an equal footing. The final step would be the investigation how established images, in their turn, influence the every-day life and future planning as well as assessing the success or failure of action plans and policy initiatives. The direct result of the project is the GIS-P dataset, which is easy to use and complement including spatially coded data on the environmental and social conditions in the territory of the Town of Paldiski. A manuscript on the form and content of a place as expressed on the maps of meaning would be completed to be published separately in Estonian. The various theoretical and methodological issues will be discussed in three papers to be published internationally. The project thus has both local - increased awareness and better position in negotiations with outside agencies for Paldiski and, in a broader sense, in developing new concepts and methods in Estonia, as well as international, as an analysis of a scientifically interesting area, application. |
| project group | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| no | name | institution | position | |
| 1. | Toomas Kokovkin | Research centre 'Arhipelaag' | executive director | |
| 2. | Tiina Peil | Estonian Institute for Sustainable Development, SEI-Tallinn | research fellow | |