Social Location Analysis

Social location is important in knowledge production. One’s perspective is influenced by the location of his or her identity. Maps are useful for one to find one’s way and for navigation, but also to show others how to get somewhere. When one maps one’s experiences, an extra dimension is added to an ‘objectively’ created map. It becomes three dimensional, rather than flat. Both public and private spaces can be included, and it portrays a mapping and experience that is not additive, linear, or dualistic. According to Keifer-Boyd and Smith, it is an “extension of self in visual narrative form” (2012, p.4). Situated knowledges are how one knows what one knows via a relationship between lived experience and the influence of social location. There is no such thing as ‘neutral space.’ By pairing my experiences with locations and particular spaces, I could navigate

I created my own narrative. For example, my ideas and perspective on race and religion are contributable to where I grew up and who I was surrounded by. While I went to church in Asbury Park and experienced it positively, those who have not done so might rely on the default stereotypes associated with Asbury Park. One might immediately think Asbury Park-dangerous. However, I was conflicted as a child while my mother held negative views and fears about gang members. The church is a space perhaps where violence cannot penetrate, but the streets, to her, differed. While younger, I could not help but internalize certain stereotypes about Asbury Park which I extended to the Black community, but my experiences with church caused me to question them. The church humanized the members of the Asbury community who otherwise might have been condensed to stereotypes because of its isolation and