Sketching local development: Graphic methods at the intersection of democratic and representational experimentalism

Recent debates on ‘graphic’ geographies and the reinterpretation of the notion of ‘democratic experimentalism’ in local development suggest the rise of a new ‘representational experimentalism’ that explores graphic methods for place-based approaches. Graphic methods of research can assist geographers in conducting and presenting the results of place-based research to wider audiences. Graphic products of research function as tools for storytelling and spatial planning. They can also provide intersubjective dialogue between researchers, local communities, and local governments to create more inclusive place-based narratives. In this paper, we pres-ent a verbo-visual manifesto and an illustrated fieldwork journal as two empirical examples of possible ways to engage with graphic methods and realise the potential graphic outputs of research. These graphic products are the result of a collaboration between geographers, students in Local Development and Sustainable Territorial Development (at the University of Padua), two professional illustrators, and a group of local stakeholders; they used scribing and observational drawing as place-based graphic methods during a residential seminar at the Po Delta, in north-eastern Italy. This paper contributes to both recent debates on creative methods in local develop-ment and the study of the use graphic and visual methods in geography. It proposes graphic methods as a way for embracing place-based approaches to local development in peripheral, fragile, and contested areas, making hidden voices visible.