Value Mapping as a Pedagogical Tool to Understand Complex Urban and Landscape Challenges

The current work explores value mapping as a pedagogical tool to gain a better understanding of the role of values in addressing sustainability challenges and their implications across scales, disciplines, and time. First, we introduce a Master-level course where students use the city as a learning ecosystem and engage with situated creative practices tackling global sustainability challenges at a local scale. Then we discuss the developed value maps. It can be concluded that the value mapping process not only proved instrumental in offering valuable insights and contextual understanding into the intricate, and sometimes conflicting, values identified, but also fostered students’ critical thinking skills, allowing them to identify potential areas of discord among stakeholders. The collaborative mapping approach, guided by shared values and facilitated by design expertise, holds the potential to overcome challenges, create a thriving ecosystem, and ensure a future where ecological well-being, shared responsibility, and informed decision-making go hand in hand.