Mapping social media narratives of place: community voices from Lagoa de Albufeira, Portugal

Abstract This paper investigates how community perceptions of a peri-urban coastalscape are narrated in digital environments. Focusing on the Lagoa de Albufeira in Sesimbra, Portugal, this study employs a netnographic approach to explore discussions within local Facebook groups. Posts, images, and comments are examined as forms of Social Media Geographic Information (SMGI), providing insight into how the online community interpret social-ecological change and everyday interactions with the place. Drawing on Paulo Freire’s notion of generative themes, recurrent patterns of concern and aspiration are identified, ranging from environmental vulnerability to issues of access, memory, and identity. These themes are translated into creative thick representations—visual narratives that combine text, maps, archives, and imagery to capture the density of local spatial knowledge. The representations culminate in a cultural map of the Lagoa de Albufeira, offering an alternative account of the place that foregrounds community voices and more-than-human relations. The paper contributes in three ways: first, by advancing SMGI as a critical entry point for understanding how local communities articulate place-based concerns online; second, by operationalising Freirean generative themes as a methodological tool to structure a digital ethnography; and third, by proposing cultural mapping through creative thick representations as a means to foreground community voices in peri-urban coastalscapes. Ultimately, it argues that such mappings offer not only new insights into coastal sustainability but also pathways for epistemic justice.