Miles Behind the Wheel: A Visual Study of Spatial Mismatch in the Mid-Hudson Valley

• In Event: 31.025 - Beyond In/Visibilities: Working With and Through Visual Methodologies

Abstract

Objectives:
This paper is based on a multi-year research project directed by [co-author], titled “Deferred Action and Postsecondary Outcomes: The Role of Migrant Youth Settings in Effective and Equitable Policy.” The project works with migrant young people in the mid-Hudson Valley region, a rural, agricultural area of upstate New York, using photovoice and participatory mapping methods to learn about post-secondary decision-making with children of migrant, and often undocumented, laborers. After an initial year conducting photovoice research with young people, we spent the second year co-researching with service providers who work with migrant youth as Tutor Advocates for a local migrant education program. The focus is on migrant youths’ relationships to the mid-Hudson Valley as a place, and how that place affords and limits access to needed services.

Perspective(s) or theoretical framework:
We analyze participatory mapping data done with service providers through the framework of critical place inquiry: set of concepts, practices, and theories which move beyond understandings of place as neutral backdrop, or as only physical landscape. Critical place inquiry can include a range of research methodologies; what is central is the way the chosen methodology and methods engage place explicitly and politically (Tuck & McKenzie, 2015). The visual methods engaged in this study are taken up because they help to conceptualize the lived experience of place. We also add a spatial justice dimension, to consider the geography of (in)justice, in particular the distribution of, and access to, valued resources and supports (Soja, 2010).

Methods & Data:
This article shares ideas co-created with youth service providers in a three-day research and professional development workshop. We conducted focus groups, individual interviews, and facilitated several participatory visual research activities, including community mapping, photo-elicitation, and several forms of concept mapping. Community mapping is a research method that uses maps as tools to collectively produce place, through visual practices including looking and visioning (Grasseni, 2012), making it particularly relevant for this project.

Results:
The mapping and interview processes with the service providers revealed the disparity between their experience of mobility and that of migrant families in the same spaces. Through the mapping exercise, migrant and undocumented families’ lack of personal vehicles factored into the discussion. A personal vehicle seemed to be key for accessing services that would help a migrant family create a safe and stable life in the Hudson Valley, and yet it was a rarity. The transportation challenges for migrant families in the mid-Hudson Valley are well-captured by the term “spatial mismatch”(Anyon, 2014): newcomers to a place in which their ability to connect and build supports is hindered by vast expanses of land and a lack of monetary resources to navigate it.

Significance:
Making maps as a tactile, place-making activity brought to life the geographical challenges of the region. The methods revealed where young people feel welcome and excluded, and how they get around to access the services they need to plan for their futures and work towards setting and accomplishing goals.

Authors

• Deanna Del Vecchio, University of Toronto

• Eve Tuck, University of Toronto