Acceso usuarios
Hyunjoo Jung
This article explores how mental mapping can be used as a critical methodology forfeminist migration studies. In a case study of female marriage migrants who settle inrural areas in South Korea from other Asian countries, I attempt to develop mentalmapping to supplement verbal interviews. Mental maps of hometowns and currentneighborhoods drawn by my interviewees represent their geographical imaginations andcomplex identity negotiations that mirror the change in their social locations. In order tounderstand multilayered meanings embedded in the images and the way in which powerrelations existent between the researcher and the researched affect the map production,I suggest a critical reading of the maps. The article shows how a reflexive andintertextual reading makes a difference to the interpretation of the maps. It argues thatthe maps are not mere reflections of the women’s cognition, but rather sociallyconstructed texts through which their desires, emotions, feelings and internalcontradictions are expressed and negotiated. My research suggests that mental mapping,if ethically performed and critically evaluated, has potential as a means to convey theunheard voices of the marginalized to diverse audiences.
