Transcribing from the Mind To the Map: Tracing the Evolution of a Concept

Transcribing what is held in one's mind to a tangible map is experiencing a multidisciplinary renewal. Sketch mapping is being utilized to identify a range of community concerns, as well as for more generally revealing otherwise invisible landscapes. Whether the aim is to understand preference, perception, knowledge, or behavior, the result is some form of map. The genesis of this concept is usually attributed to seminal work in the 1960s and 1970s geography, planning, and environmental psychology. However, its resurgence in the past decade has been driven by a confluence of recent methodological and epistemological developments across numerous disciplines surrounding the role of local knowledge in ecological frameworks and how this can be mapped and analyzed with and without geospatial technologies. With growing adoption of sketch mapping well beyond its initial disciplinary niches, it is appropriate to review its evolution in order to inform ongoing and future research.