Mapping Community Economies as a Living Heritage Practice

Community economy scholars are interested in performing and activating more-than-capitalist visions of economy. One of the ways they do this is through mapping. This chapter begins with an exploration of the use and value of maps and mapping in community economies research with links to heritage practice. It then examines two specific examples of community economies mapping across the Australia-Asia region. The first example reveals how inventory-based mapping across Australia and Asia can act as a performative strategy for opening up ‘the economy’ to diverse trajectories for economic development. The second example demonstrates how mapping can serve as a grassroots participatory process of community economies activation, and for this we draw on research undertaken in Mindanao, the Philippines. As community economies scholars contributing to this edited collection, which connects economies and heritage, we are curious about how mapping community economies acts as a kind of ‘living heritage practice’ whereby community economies in and across time are sites for performing and activating diversified understandings of economy. We are also interested in how human beings within those economies collectively negotiate their survival and well-being as they grapple with contemporary planetary challenges. This chapter goes some way to exploring these questions.