Research
Activities
Fieldwork
Fieldwork
for this project has taken a number of forms:
- Interviews:
interviews have been carried out with a wide range of people, including
keen city and countryside walkers, people with an interest in a particular
aspect of walking (e.g. mobility in the city or health), and public sector
representatives.
- Participative
walking: accompanying people during their walks, including everyday
walks to and from work or in a local area, countryside walks, and hill-walking
expeditions. This allows us to find out what actually happens during a walk,
as well as serving as basis for further discussion and talk.
- Fieldnotes
from personal walking: I am often on the lookout for things of
interest in my own routes around the city and countryside, noting the effects
of changing weather conditions, different frequencies of pedestrian movement,
and changes in the environment during and between walks.
- Photography
and sound recording: I am building up a photographic record of
my fieldwork activities, and in doing so, the diversity of walking practices
in and around the city emerges. I also have a particular interest in sound
environments, and with the aid of a digital minidisc recorder I am exploring
the ways that places, and particularly those places made by walking, can
be characterised by their sound.
- Archival
and library research: this includes research into the history of
Aberdeen, particularly its material aspects, and the academic literature
of anthropology and related disciplines.
Research
themes
I
am currently interested in five themes:
-
Place
in the city: learning, perception and risk: this theme explores
how places are made by walking in and around the city, and the city and
the region emerge as places. People learn techniques of walking all through
their lives and adjust how they walk in different environments. How people
find a walking route is related to their perception of the environment and
sense of self. Emerging from this, I am interested in comparing constructions
of risk between walking in the city and hill-walking or mountaineering.
-
Time,
biography and rhythm: people also link different times together
in and between walks. This both in terms of biographical or life history
time, where walking can be related to different stages of life, and the
perception of temporality in the environment in which the past, present
and future are interlinked. The variety of walking rhythms that people display
in their lives as a whole (such as a repeated daily walk or a one-off long
distance trip) is another dimension here.
-
The
material culture of walking: pavements and lighting: I am commencing
an historical and archival investigation of the material environment of
walking in Aberdeen. The city has a wide range of different pavement and
street surfaces, the history of which is an important part of its economic
and social development. Although city lighting is now relatively uniform,
there are also differences in the type of effect sought. What have been
the rationales behind paving and lighting choices, and how have they affected
the experience of walking? Different kinds of footwear will also be significant
here.
-
A
history and ethnography of Union Street: the history of Union Street,
the 'main' street of Aberdeen, is a fascinating one. From its inception
as a project of the Scottish Enlightenment in the late 18th century to the
current plans for partial pedestrianisation, it has a literal and metaphorical
central place in the life of the city. The wanderings of its pedestrians,
however, seem to challenge its rigid linearity in both day-time and night-time
guises.
-
The
politics of walking:
walking is at the heart of many political discussions, locally and nationally.
The UK government and Scottish Executive are encouraging healthier lifestyles
and are searching for urban transport alternatives. In Aberdeen, the pedestrianisation
of Union Street and a range of other improvements to and detractions from
the local walking environment are often fiercely fought for or resisted.
Furthermore, the recent land reform legislation has provided the context
for a higher profile for countryside walking.
Research presentations
The
following presentations of the work have taken place or are planned:
-
April
2004: Paper presented at the 2004 ASA conference, Durham - 'Culture from
the ground: walking, movement and placemaking'.
-
October
2004: Paper presented to the Department of Anthropology SAnECH seminar -
'A peripatetic cocktail party: perception, routes and sociability through
walking around Aberdeen'.
-
November
2004: Public lecture delivered at Marischal Museum, Aberdeen: 'Streets,
paths and hillsides: research into the contemporary walking life of Aberdeen'.
- April 2005: Poster presentation
and workshop at the 2005 ASA conference, Aberdeen. The workshop contribution
can be viewed here.
- June 2005: Public talk
as part of the 'Gangrel Bodies' visual arts project in Aberdeen (June 15-24).
- June 2005: Paper presented
at the 'Getting
lost in Tokyo' seminar, Dundee Contemporary Arts: 'How straight is Union
Street? Lines and rhythms of walking in the city'.
-
September
2005: We hosted a three-day seminar on
the themes of the sociality of walking and walking in anthropology. The
results are being edited for publication.
- November 2005: Public
lecture given to the Cairngorm Club, Aberdeen: 'Walking rhythms and walking
cultures: research in the anthropology of walking'.
- December 2005: Paper
presented to the 2005 AAA conference, Washington DC, USA:'The
lines and rhythms of walking: past and present in an urban environment.'
- September 2006: Paper to be presented
to the 2006 EASA conference, Bristol: 'Scottish land reform and the idea of
'outdoors' '
- December 2006: Public lecture to be
given to Cults Hillwalking Club.
