A new outlook on map use in social sciences and humanities research

Abstract

Since their first appearance, maps increasingly secured their irreplaceable role in our civilization. As the human society develops, so is cartography to become more useful than ever. Transforming from their designated role as a tool of positioning or navigating, maps have become a second language to visualize real world, and a useful tool in scientific research. Particularly, recent decades have experienced the creative use of map in social sciences and humanities researches that yield interesting results. However, in Viet Nam this is still a relatively new approach that has not yet received the attention it deserves. This paper systematically illustrates how maps can be applied in social sciences and humanities  researches, as such suggesting how researchers in social sciences and humanities can employ maps in a greater variations and more effective, creative ways. Researches done in social sciences and humanities (in which maps had been used) accompanied with indepth-interviews are closely observed, studied and analyzed  to identify how maps are being used in different stages of research. To enhance ease and flexibility of map usage in research, we have presented all the situations according to map functionalities. It is concluded that maps can be used for pre-arrival to site analysis, study-site selection (multi-criteria analysis function), field trip planning (navigating function). Maps could also be used as primary data collection tool in associated with questionnaires, in-depth interviews and focus groups, in order to explore spatial aspect of collected data (multi-criteria and multi-time analysis functions). Last but not least, map use is a great way to illustrate spatial research information in a more creative and visualized way.