Mapping Ecologies of Place: Local, Virtual, Digital

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to Volume 5  Issue 2 of Global Media Journal/Australian Edition. We are pleased to offer an issue that emerged from the interests within our Design teaching and research staff and based on a symposium organised by Kaye Shumack, Helen Armstrong and Juan Salazar on the topic of Mapping. The idea of Mapping remains a key metaphor in this issue which presents a selection of papers supplemented by articles that respond to the usual agenda of GMJ/AU.

I would like to acknowledge the excellent work of Kaye Shumack and Helen Armstrong who have guest edited this issue. I would also like to acknowledge the support provided by Lisa Kaufmann our editorial assistant as well as the work of those involved in the tasks of web production (Roman Goik) sub-editing (Myra Gurney) and formatting (Antonio Castillo). Thanks as well to those who have responded to our referee requests and provided their views on the submissions to this issue of the journal.

Our next issue will be edited by Dr James Arvanitakis and Prof David Rowe on the theme of Globalisation and Culturalisation: Advancing Cultural Research in Sweden and Australia. The final issue of GMJ/AU for 2012 will be guest edited by Diana Bossio and Saba Bebawi on the topic of The Arab Spring: A Symposium on Social Media and the Politics of Reportage. GMJ/AU, in collaboration with Swinburne University’s Faculty of Life and Social Sciences, will present a symposium on the Arab Spring on Friday June 8, 2012, Melbourne Australia. 

Hart Cohen

Guest Editorial

Theme Editors: Helen Armstrong and Kaye Shumack

This issue of Global Media Journal (GMJ) emerged from a workshop – Mapping ecologies of place: local, virtual, digital – held in 2011 at the University of Western Sydney (UWS) and convened with the support of the Centre for Cultural Research (CCR). The backstory of how this workshop came about is worth telling here. Firstly, in 2006 the editors of this issue had a growing interest in the practices of creative community mapping through our association with Dr. Elaine Lally’s research project titled the “Digital Cultural Atlas” (DCA) (1). Dr. Lally’s project linked regional creative activities with the geospatial, offering alternate ways of reading and researching cultural knowledge linked to place.
....Full Guest Editorial