Qualitative visualisation – perspectives and potentials for population geography

Abstract

The growing influence of qualitative visualisations that support qualitative and mixed methods approaches in population geography specifically open new perspectives for theoretical and methodological developments. Whereas qualitative research using visualisation remains rare when compared to quantitative approaches, several cases of innovation can be identified in population geography. Furthermore, we identified three favourable conditions to potentially inspire new methods of visualisation: the growing relevance of art-based research, an increasing number of transdisciplinary experiences, and the contemporary critical debate on communicating using maps. Based on this diagnosis, we call for systematic experiments and exchange that can inform an intense transdisciplinary academic debate on key epistemological questions, on different approaches to visualisation, and on new tools and techniques to visualise in population geography and beyond.