Small scale socio-cultural thematic maps for development and administrative planning

Because of the domination of development and administrative planning by economists there has in the past been a concentration on variables that are mostly economic and measurable and a tendency to give insufficient attention to socio-cultural and socio-political variables. Now perspectives are changing and there is an awareness of the need to use more accurate and complete data on social and cultural phenomena. There is as a result a need to appreciate the contribution that geographers and cartographers can make. This article reviews the small scale socio-cultural mapping of third world countries. It considers the available range of such maps and carto-bibliographical guides, and proceeds to consider how socio-cultural mapping could be extended in a way that would be useful for development planners and administrators.     

Identities,Boundaries, and Accounts of Women Methamphetamine Users

Drug users often define themselves as functional users and depict others as dysfunctional (i.e. junkies). Previous research on the social identities of drug users has focused on the symbolic boundaries they create to distance themselves from stigmatized others. Investigators have yet to focus on how users account for their own boundary violations. Here, we examine the narratives of 30 former women methamphetamine (meth) users to determine how they make distinctions between functional and dysfunctional meth users (i.e. “meth heads”). The distinctions they make are based on users’ abilities to maintain control of their lives and to hide their use from outsiders. Those who saw themselves as functional but who engaged in behaviors inconsistent with this image accounted for these behaviors to maintain desired identities. We show the complexity of drug users’ identities and illustrate how anti-drug campaigns that provide grotesque caricatures of drug users may prolong drug using careers.