Participatory Mapping and Community Engagement in La Carpio

PARTICIPANTS: Christien Klaufus and Isabelle Mollinger

DATE: June 2025

ACTIVITY: Workshop Tejiendo Infraestructuras Sociales y Vitales en La Carpio

RESEARCH PROJECT: CONTESTING URBAN BORDERSCAPES IN LATIN AMERICA

Last week, our CEDLA colleagues Christien Klaufus (PI of NWO-funded project Contesting Urban Borderscapes in Latin America) and Isabelle Mollinger (PhD candidate in this project), together with community leaders Alicia Avilés and Orlando Bonilla, hosted a three-day workshop Tejiendo Infraestructuras Sociales y Vitales en La Carpio – an academic-community initiative exploring the often invisible infrastructures that sustain life in the neighborhood. One key component was a collective mapping exercise focused on places in La Carpio where waste accumulates in public space. What may seem like a straightforward issue of “more bins” or “less litter” turned out to be connected to much deeper dynamics: accessibility issues, informal paths, tensions between sectors, and the (in)visibility of institutional services. They worked with the open-source methodology of Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, which makes collaborative mapping remarkably accessible by relying only on WhatsApp groups. No downloads, no tech barriers – just local knowledge and mobile phones. A huge recommendation to anyone in research circles working with participatory mapping. Throughout the process, they brought together residents from across the neighborhood and involved the municipality from the start, building dialogue and collective insight. The impact of academic research on the ground isn’t always immediate or visible. But sometimes, it’s exactly about connecting the right people in the right space, at the right time. That’s where transformation begins.

Christien and Isabelle explicitly thank their advisory board members Cielo María Holguín Ramírez, Nikolai Alvarado, Paolo Boccagni, and the participants from the neighborhood and the city of San José who helped to co-create this process and move the analysis forward.