Walking

Charlotte Bates is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Cardiff UniversityEmma Jackson is a Visiting Senior Research Fellow in Sociology at LSE

‘This innovative “field guide” offers a wonderful invitation to pay attention to and analyse our social worlds by engaging the peripatetic senses, the sensory affordances and creative understandings of the messy intersections of bodies, space, place, landscape, rhythms, sound, time and the more than human through a critical sociological lens by walking with contemporary sociologists! A book to read, share and savour! The power of sociological storytelling at its very best!’—Maggie O’Neill, University College Cork‘This collection of walks tackles big social issues in a lyrical and reflective manner showcasing the creativity of movement as methodology. Read this book and be inspired to get walking and understand spaces and places differently.’—Ruth Penfold-Mounce, University of York'Engaging and illuminating at once, Walking holds the social, historical, political, and emancipatory possibilities of a stroll close. These are walks beyond the trope of the Romantic figure – in the city, down back alleys, through questions of access and activism. A much-needed contribution to our literatures of place.'—Jessica J. Lee, author and environmental historian'Written as a sociological field guide, each contribution takes the reader on a walk, opening up attentiveness to embodied, situated spaces and connections between the local and global, pasts, presents and futures. This wonderful book will be invaluable to those researching, teaching and thinking with space, movement and everyday lives.'—Rebecca Coleman, University of Bristol‘Richly textured, insightful and fascinating. Contributors share walks crossing both time and space, illuminating issues that resonate far beyond each writer’s path. We travel along supply chains, rivers and disused railway lines, accompanied by dogs, songbirds, comedians and key social theorists. Subjects explored include complex histories and potential futures, regeneration, inequality, technology, racism, environmental injustices and more, alongside networks of care, community solidarity and everyday resistance. Power is revealed, disrupted and questioned with each footstep. Expertly crafted, each essay balances expertise with accessibility and is deeply engaging. Thoughtful prompts encourage the reader to embark on their own mobile research project. An essential guide for curious scholars across many fields—and for anyone who wants to understand the value of walking as, with, and in social research.’—Morag Rose, author of The Feminist Art of Walking‘A consistently unusual, thoughtful and original set of essays, full of gimlet-eyed observations and rich sociological insights. Taken together, they offer a compellingly diverse yet surprisingly unified account of walking – not walking as mere traversal of space but as a form of knowing, encountering, testing, clarifying, probing and above all listening to the complexity of places. Deeply informed, sociologically grounded, and politically astute, the essays also offer a glimpse of what walking, at its best, might be – a deeply intimate yet non-possessive mode of being in the world.’—Michael Malay, author of Late Light

• Introduction: a sociological field guide – Emma Jackson and Charlotte BatesCirculate1 Pound shop: walking the intersections between Yiwu and Dalston – Laura Henneke and Caroline Knowles 2 Hiding in plain sight: walking through race and space on Brixton Station Road – Karis Campion3 Walking routes, talking toilets: exploring pitstops of public toilet access in everyday life – Lauren White4 Distribution landscapes: a walk through the trading estates of south London – Louise Rondel5 Walking with nurdles: reflections on a plastic beach clean – Alice MahTrace6 Breaking down the walls of Partick: tracing cycles of urban neoliberalism and resistance – Kirsteen Paton7 Walls and bridges: or, what’s so funny ‘bout peace, love and understanding – Daryl Martin8 Traces of industrial York – Nicholas Gane9 A walk along Chester’s canal: peeling back the past to rediscover colonial era Cheshire – Julia Bennett10 Walking the line: search practices, environment and the practice of care in mountain rescue work – Robin James Smith11 Walking through waves: technology, the Thames and urban development – Alex Rhys-Taylor12 In the Big Yin’s footsteps: class, belonging and the long walk home – Les Back13 Under a hawthorn tree or thoughts about nightingales and war – Vron WareRecompose14 The rhythms of walking and doing sociology on The Street – Dawn Lyon15 Territory and temporality on the university campus – Katherine Quinn16 Your feet may change size: murder mystery, motherhood and the anti-carceral imagination – Phil Crockett Thomas17 Black dog, brown disabled man, white world – Viji Kuppan18 Listening to urban change on the River Ravensbourne – Emma Jackson19 Walking into the current – Charlotte Bates20 Walking away and returning: letting go of ashes in Blackpool and Stratford Upon Avon – Nirmal PuwarHidden trackIndex