Using Innovative Mixed-Methods to Map Context in Social Work Research

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are a set of technological tools that allow researchers to map, visualize, and analyze the relationships between individuals and their environment. However, while related fields like public health and urban planning have embraced the use of GIS and spatial methods, social work scholarship lags behind. Until recently, GIS methods were thought of as a strictly positivist, quantitative set of tools. New technological developments that aim to simplify and democratize GIS are bringing to light new opportunities in non-quantitative GIS.

Understanding people’s geo-narratives can help social workers design and better target services, gain a better understanding of the challenges faced by residents at multiple systems levels and uncover the resources and assets that are available to remediate them. GIS is becoming increasingly user-friendly and participatory; and mixed-methods uses of mapping are promising avenues for social work researchers with clear implications for engaging communities and producing rich sources of macro-level social work data.

In this workshop, we seek to explore the innovative ways that GIS—and more broadly, a spatially informed perspective—can be integrated into one’s research agenda, focusing on how GIS can complement as a mixed or qualitative research tool. Participants in this workshop will learn to frame their social work-related research questions from a spatially-informed perspective, using examples that range from developing an on-the-ground understanding of youths’ perceived environments through photography to mapping older adults’ activity spaces and access to health related resources. Attention will be given to ways to successfully engage and empower youth and older adults in these processes.

Several mixed methods approaches for integrating GIS with participatory mapping and qualitative data (such as interviews, field observations, and photo-narratives) will be outlined in this workshop to better understand the environmental context in which clients reside and give credence to their assessments of strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for intervention. We will use an interactive pedagogy in which participants use their cell phone cameras and GPS apps to experience this integration of methods and to foster lively discussion about collecting and analyzing these mixed data.

In summary, this workshop will provide examples of innovative mixed-methods in tandem with GIS and spatial analysis to engage research participants in assessing social problems. The workshop facilitators, who utilize mixed spatial methods in their work, will discuss examples of ongoing projects and provide opportunity for engagement and discussion among attendees. Facilitators will share how their use of GIS applications and novel mixed-methods research successfully engaged difficult to reach populations and share lessons learned from working with these populations.  We will describe arts-based techniques that explore the spatial contours of neighborhoods and provide tools that will allow audience members to replicate field-based photo elicitation and participatory community mapping activities. Because GIS has been traditionally seen as a positivist, quantitative research tool, panelists will focus on the use of GIS in the context of mixed methods research and qualitative research, looking at new and creative ways to engage intergenerational clients and participants through the use of maps.