From near, and from within, this is a workshop held with students from universities (architecture, urban planning, design, arts and social sciences courses) of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, that aims to analyze the neighborhood dynamics and potentialities of a given territory through collective mapping carried out by the participants. The research methods combine interviews, participant observation, photography, video, cartography, illustration and collages that describe daily life and also search for potentialities and resources in the acting territory. The results are always organized into compact, non-academic and easy-to-read publications.