Social cartography is an interdisciplinary approach to research that draws on methodologies from geography and sociology to map the social structures of various communities using qualitative and participatory techniques. It uses action research methods and seeks to create an understanding of the power relations that exist between people and the discourses that shape their relations to one another and their environment. Social cartography seeks to create a vivid and multi-layered account of how lived experiences of everyday social life and social injustices, both physical and symbolic, are negotiated and understood by individuals and communities.

See also: global citizenship, relational justice, white supremacy, power relation, global south