Abstract

This study explores the role of vegan-location mapping as an integrated form of the veganism movement, by analyzing its relationship with the geographical imagination of mapmakers through the lens of relational, physical, and representational placeness. For this purpose, six national and local vegan maps, created voluntarily by individuals, were selected and nine mapmakers who created them were recruited and interviewed as our research participants. We also collected and analyzed information through messages and properties inscribed in the maps, as well as through posts and comments on social media and websites that share the maps. We found that participants in the vegetarian movement utilize vegan maps as a relational site of collaboration and bonding, a physical site of exposure and display of vegetarian concepts and values, and a representational site of geographical imaginaries of sustainable societies. These findings suggest that vegan maps function as more than just a map merely displaying vegan locations, but as alternative places for the mutual construction of participants’ geographical imaginaries.