The Global Atlas Network is a collaboration platform of independent projects to map and analyze social structures, processes and practices in different cities across the globe. These projects come from initiatives that are not similar and do not intend to become similar. Their networking is a way to join forces in the effort of rendering more visible the attempts to identify, map and explore urban social processes and to expand the debate on the social dimensions of cities. By bringing to the fore and making these process more visible, the issues and stakes related to them can reach more easily the social and political agendas.
The objectives of the network
- Promoting critical understanding of urban questions through comparative analysis
- Fostering dissemination (democratization) of evidence based knowledge
- Building on the exchange of interdisciplinary expertise and methods
The initial meeting of the Global Atlas Network took place in Athens in October 2022, hosted by the Ecole française d’Athènes, partner of the Athens Social Atlas. The main decision was to create the network, to establish regular communication among its members, to learn from each other and to think of innovative forms of collaboration and use of urban social atlases, to expand the network, to establish regular meetings among projects and to explore possibilities of funding for the common goals of the network. The Global Atlas Network should become a way to join forces and coordinate the efforts of network members pursuing similar goals.
Although the Network will inevitably lead its members to learn from each other and coordinate efforts, all members of the Network agreed that the diversity of individual projects and teams should be preserved. Each project has its own history and a specific profile in terms of the disciplines and research focuses of its members. The Network should be an area of synergies for the work of diverse teams, producing innovative effects through combined work and interaction.