Emotional cartography of urban fear: Methodological approach to analyse the relationship between built environment and fear of crime
The Emotional Cartography of Urban Fear method seeks to capture people's feelings about the built environment-going beyond its physical features-through mobile and sedentary techniques. Participants walk alongside the researcher in their familiar surroundings, discussing their emotions, localised victimisation experiences, and community concerns. Additionally, focus groups allow for a deeper analysis of specific situations, community ties, and opinions or complaints regarding local government performance. This information is triangulated using non-participant and participant observations as well as in-depth interviews. Finally, perceptions are synthesised into Intensity of Fear Maps and Talk's Track Maps while also being available in the form of databases, tables, and narratives.•Combining geographical information systems with qualitative analysis, such as thematic analysis, can capture spatial people's perceptions without losing rich narratives.•This method generates the Talk's track map-a tool that enables the georeferencing of qualitative coding from mobile interviews.•Variety of data collection and analysis methods allows to efficiently triangulate research data about built environment and perceptions.
Authors
- Karla Barrantes Chaves (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1554-6842)
Institutions
- Universidad de Costa Rica (CR)
Publication Details
- Journal
- MethodsX
- Published
- 2025-04-15
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mex.2025.103316
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Urban Design and Spatial Analysis
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.01
Funders
- Universidad de Costa Rica