Issue Mapping as Critical Methodology in Grounded Action Research

Table Of Contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• Foreword
• Preface
• Practical Tips for Readers
• Why this title for the book?
• Who would be interested in this book?
• Acknowledgments
• List of Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 Issue
• a. What shapes an issue?
• i. What do issues add up to?
• b. What is issue mapping?
• i. The issue pursuit
• ii. The role of uncertainty and risk by Alberto Cairo
• c. Actors, relations, networks, and maybe issuefication
• i. The color line from DuBois until now
• ii. Visualizing relationalities
• iii. Issuefication as reconnection
• iv. On counter-mapping as data justice
• d. Controversies and their mapping
• i. Definition of controversy mapping
• ii. Evolution of controversy mapping toward coproduction of knowledge
• 1. Teaching controversies
• a. Public education model
• b. Public debate model
• c. Coproduction of knowledge model
• 2. Discussing controversy in the classroom
• e. Digital controversy analysis
• i. Three frameworks: Demarcationists, discourse analysis, radical empiricism
• 1. Network and issue mappers
• 2. Controversy studies with Venturini et al.
• 3. Responsibility, accountability, transparency, and change
• f. Ubiquity of STS to controversy mapping
• i. Latour and his research team as advocates of STS
• ii. Controversy mapping in relation to ANT and digital methods
• Chapter 2 Dynamics
• a. Infrastructures: Mapping the internet infrastructure itself
• b. Internet governance
• i. Different models of governance and their impact on sustainability and intercultural patterns
• c. The recentralized web: Platforms, mediation, and recentralization
• d. Interfaces as determined design
• i. Platform logics, apps, algorithms
• ii. Public data vs. personal data: Data from the margins as a case study during COVID-19
• iii. Harmful by design: the relation between information design, data visualization, and digital mapping
• iv. Visual variables (shape, size, position, color): “Position is everything. Color is difficult”
• v. Visualization as an analytical tool on its own
• vi. Language (repertoire of metaphors)
• vii. Interaction
• e. Non-actors, places, spaces, and framing
• i. Object-oriented ontology (OOO) vs. actor-network theory
• ii. Touch with reality vs. relations creating knowledge
• f. Getting information systems to interact
• i. Controversy mapping in Wikipedia: Contropedia
• g. Attention
• i. Political Campaigns and Controversies
• ii. Junk news bubbles modeling
• iii. Media and state institutions in strategizing attention
• iv. Conspiracy with a single tweet
• v. COVID-19 viral conspiracies
• h. Action, reaction, resistance, and breaking through
• i. Controversy as democracy shaper or system critique from below?
• Chapter 3 Research
• a. Grounded action research
• i. Participatory action mapping as “embodied expertise” and counter-mapping
• ii. Open science initiatives
• iii. Participatory action research as collaborative inquiry
• b. Practice vs. theory
• i. Publishing data maps
• ii. Situational analysis situating issues in social context (social semiotics)
• iii. Data sprints as critical collaborative action by extended research collectives
• c. Timeless/non-space
• i. “This is not an Atlas”
• Chapter 4 Beyond Method
• a. Who decides? Who asks? Who is/not involved?
• b. Who maps and what is mapped? What is not mapped?
• c. Dangerous questions about life through method / anti-method
• i. Gap between knowledge and reality: Object Oriented Ontologies
• ii. Back to uncertainty and possibility
• d. Truth politics vs. power politics
• i. Social media and Wikipedia as problematic sources
• ii. Precautionary approach to digital bias
• iii. Affirmative approach to digital bias
• Conclusive Remarks
• Selected Bibliography
• Related Platforms and Projects
• Other Literature on Online Issue Mapping
• Social science literature on issue analysis
• Lists
• Keywords and Extended Glossary
• Issue mapping as a technique
• Comparison between issue mapping and controversy mapping
• Deliberation in controversy mapping
• The relation between AI and issue/controversy mapping
• Index

Aslı Telli

Issue Mapping
as Critical Methodology
in Grounded Action Research

Berlin · Bruxelles · Chennai · Lausanne · New York · Oxford

Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek

The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available online at http://dnb.d-nb.de.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2025034184

This open-access publication has been made possible through the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation grant for dissemination.

Cover illustration: © ArtBalitskiy / iStock, Stock Illustration ID: 1681012276, used under license.

ISBN 978-3-631-81126-9 (Print)

ISBN 978-3-631-94404-2 (E-PDF)

ISBN 978-3-631-94405-9 (E-PUB)

DOI 10.3726/b23245

© Aslı Telli 2026

Published by Peter Lang GmbH, Berlin (Germany)

info@peterlang.com – www.peterlang.com

Open Access: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This publication has been peer reviewed.

Table of Contents

List of Figures

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations

Introduction

CHAPTER 1 Issue

a. What shapes an issue?

i. What do issues add up to?

b. What is issue mapping?

i. The issue pursuit

ii. The role of uncertainty and risk by Alberto Cairo

c. Actors, relations, networks, and maybe issuefication

i. The color line from DuBois until now

ii. Visualizing relationalities

iii. Issuefication as reconnection

iv. On counter-mapping as data justice

d. Controversies and their mapping

i. Definition of controversy mapping

ii. Evolution of controversy mapping toward coproduction of knowledge

1. Teaching controversies

a. Public education model

b. Public debate model

c. Coproduction of knowledge model

2. Discussing controversy in the classroom

e. Digital controversy analysis

i. Three frameworks: Demarcationists, discourse analysis, radical empiricism

1. Network and issue mappers

2. Controversy studies with Venturini et al.

3. Responsibility, accountability, transparency, and change

f. Ubiquity of STS to controversy mapping

i. Latour and his research team as advocates of STS