Ментальные карты как инструмент комплексного культурно-географического исследования: анализ подходов

Географический вестник. 2018. № 4(47). С. 21–33.

Mitin I.

The most effective approaches to mental maps as an instrument of presentation of the complex cultural geographical research products are given as a result of comparative study. Two opposing paradigms of understanding ‘mental map’ as a term are revealed. The first deals with the orientation schemes present in the minds of personalities and/or visualized as abstract diagrams without obligatory spatial information or geographical coordinates given. The second is in fact a kind of geoimages serving as visual representations of individual or generalized visions of the given territory. They may be drawn by the informants according to the researcher’s task, or constructed by the scientist himself as a result of generalization of received data. Traditional geographical maps with thematic content representing space perception issues are regarded as a special branch of this kind of mental maps. The productive combination of two contradictory approaches with the systems of interconnected place characteristics justified by cultural geographical research ‘located’ at certain geographical coordinates is suggested. The examples of mental maps developed out of both approaches & meeting the mentioned criteria for complex cultural geographical research are given.

Keywords: пространственные представления, mental maps, ментальные карты, SPATIAL REPRESENTATIONS, cultural geography, культурная география, географический образ, гуманитарная география, geohumanities, geographical image,, complex cultural geographical research, комплексные культурно-географические исследования