1. Methods on the Move: walking, sensing, belonging
Professor Maggie O’Neill, University College Cork
Professor Tracey Reynolds, University of Greenwich

2. Intro
We will start with a presentation on our collaborative work –Participatory Arts and Social Action Research (ESRC/NCRM)
Participants will be invited to imagine / visualise a walk that is special to them/a favourite walk and then will draw the route of the walk  and share the walk with a partner.
We will reflect upon the experience in the context of your ‘walks’ and the presentation  
What does walking mean to you? Come and take part in an interactive session where we will imagine and produce a walk/map  that might capture senses of biography and belonging  for participants/co-walkers.

3. AIMS
1. We share and reflect upon using arts based walking methods in social research through the PASAR project ( and a Leverhulme Fellowship walking borders, risk and belonging)
2. We will try out some of the methods- visualizing, mapping and walking (sharing your walks)
3. Have a dialogue about your experiences/responses and also ideas for research topics that you would like to explore using walking methods
Both committed to PAR over the life time of our research careers

4. 1. Example of Our work and Collaboration -PASAR
‘Participatory Arts and Social Action Research (PASAR)’. This is a two-year research project
funded by the Economic and Social Research Council/ National Centre for Research Methods, is led by Umut Erel and Erene Kaptani Open University, Maggie O’Neill University College Cork, Tracey Reynolds University of Greenwich ( )
Focus of the study = the use of PAR to generate new knowledge and insights into the social exclusion encountered by marginalised and ‘hard to reach’ communities
Reach broader audiences and develop a research toolkit for National Centre for Research Methods

5. PASAR - methods
The research combines walking methods and participatory theatre –working with migrant mothers, girls and migrant women with no recourse to public funds - to understand the lives, experiences and sense of belonging and place making – involved in enacting citizenship.
We also worked with a school and two support organisations to do the research, and in strand 2 with Praxis and Runnymede Trust as well as Counterpoints Arts & film maker Marcia Chandra.

6. Brief note on nrpf policy D
No recourse for public funding
Section 115 of the Immigration and Asylum Act (IAA) states that a person will have ‘no recourse to public funds’ if they are subject to immigration control; public funds include welfare benefits and public housing.
NRPF families are deeply marginalized, and are affected by poverty and social isolation.
More likely to experience homelessness or insecure accommodation, and sometimes economic or sexual exploitation as a consequence of their vulnerable position

7. Decolonising research participation
Power relationships between researcher and researcher subject, as well as among researchers and project partners –reflexivity can be limited
The value of research subjects can be determined by the commodities (data) that they produce
complacency of the research space = ambiguities and complexities of marginal contexts to be concealed and even obliterated (Daniels, 2011).
Dissemination and knowledge exchange often text- based and written; favours Western and discourages indigenous languages
leads to misrepresentation of research subjects.
silencing voices and submerging data of marginalised communities
research and groups viewed through imperial eyes (eg infantilising, need ‘us’ to speak for them

8. In the first part of this session we will share/discuss
walking as a participatory, performative and mobile method: what the method is, and how it has been used in research and how we used these methods as part of our project with migrant communities.
How we integrated walking methods with participatory theatre methods.
We will then share our thoughts on the benefits and challenges of the methods and the possible impact on policy and practice.

9. 1.WALKING METHODS IN SOCIAL RESEARCH
There is a long tradition of walking in ethnographic and anthropological research but until recently not as a focused method for conducting sociological research in participatory and performative ways (Ingold and Lee 2006, Edensor 2010, Clark and Emmel 2010)
We used arts based walking methods. Taking a walk with someone can open a space for dialogue and communication in reciprocal ways. Walking is performative, relational and reflective (O’Neill and Hubbard 2010)
Deeply engaged way of ‘attuning’ –– importance of creativity in our research for social change

10. Histories of Walking
Walker philosophers, flaneurs, experimental walkers, class inequalities(Engels, Mayhew, Orwell) pilgrimage and settlement (Horváth and Szakolczai 2018 )walking/protest (see O’Neill and Roberts 2019).
Rousseau - walking as an ‘escape mechanism’ walking ‘stimulates and enlivens my thoughts’ (Coverley 2012: 25)
The ‘rhythm of walking’ ‘generates a kind of rhythm of thinking’ (Solnit 2001: 4-5).
Women walking-Virginia Woolf, Dee Heddon/Cathy Turner
Walking Art/Performance Art (ClareQualmann & walk walk walk
Social science research is increasingly ‘on the move’
Mobilities Paradigm (Urry 2007)
Psychogeography - Tina Nicholson, Will Self, Ian Sinclair.
Rise of walking as a way of interviewing – the ‘go along method’ - Ferguson (2016)
Walking as a long and deeply embedded way of doing sociological research with marginalised people, as in urban sociology/ethnographies (Chicago School)

11. Visualisation, Mapping, Walking
the mothers engaged in visualization exercises where they were asked to visualise and reflect on their everyday journeys/routes – walk school, to access welfare services
Participants then drew/mapped the routes (individual maps). The maps were used to plan the walks
walking together in the workshop we both imagined, visualised and shared our walks with a partner
Before going out onto the streets we shared our walks-facilitating space for stories and voices to be heard.

12. Workshop process – walking, sharing, reflecting
The women chose their walks based on a place of their choice
These included a walk of the neighbourhood, or other places that held a particular interest or emotions (positive or negative)
We walked together in pairs or groups - adding other landmarks onto the maps
The mothers were took photos of anything that captured their interest of the walks or on aspects of their lives they wanted to share. These walks were audio or visually recorded.
Shared in the workshops

16. The walks

21. Walking as revelatory, embodied & reflective
Clip 1. Here a mother talks about the Importance of the park to her- and points out the place where she held a birthday party for her son.
Clip 2. A mother takes us to the park where she goes with her daughter to play and count ducks
Clip 3. Young women reflect on way they use public space and attune in new ways
eos/walking-methods

22. What did we learn?
We learnt that walking enabled us to connect to the everyday lives of the women and girls in neighbourhood spaces, and a shared viewpoint and also empathic, embodied learning emerged. The walks helped us to access the way citizenship is enacted, and performed 
The young girls shared and reflected on the ways that they use public space and at the same time attuned to those spaces in new ways that enhanced their learning and awareness about the areas they live in and go to school.

23. 2.How we integrated walking methods with participatory theatre methods. (T)
After we had taken the walks together we shared the photographs and maps in the workshop space. The girls and mothers curated the images placing them around the maps to make sense of and share the knowledge produced .
We also explored the spaces and landmarks on their maps using theatre based methods, creating images individually, in pairs and collectively, taking the stories from their everyday experiences, routes and mobilities into the theatre space. Soundscapes
eos/intergrating-methods

24. Curating the walks

25. 3.benefits and challenges of the methods and the possible impact on policy and practice.
We were able to build empathic relationships with the mothers and girls.
Having the opportunity to walk alongside them enabled us to gain a real understanding of their everyday lives.
Walking opened up dialogue and conversation with the mothers and girls about their lives and neighbourhoods, also memories of home and families living in another country.
Walking together and sharing experiences built a reciprocal relationship – the process of walking, talking and sharing aspects of our lives broke down some barriers 

26. Challenges
Walking together is enriching experience but it can also be emotionally and physically tiring.
The practicalities of walking and recording need to be addressed. It was sometimes difficult to get good audio sound with noise of London traffic. Working with a film maker really helped the process and practice. 
The revelatory possibilities of walking as a method means that unanticipated encounters or experiences along the route may trigger painful memories and needs to be considered in the process of doing research ethically
The researcher and research team need to ‘hold’ the research and ensure as much as is possible that this is a safe space by building in reflective sessions and ensuring ethics and reflexivity are a central aspect of the research process.  
PAR is not a panacea-it is challenging

27. Policy day – decolonising research

28. 2. We will try out some of the methods
1. Visualise a favourite walk (share with a partner)
2. Map/draw the walk – mark the remembered landmarks along the way- feelings- memories..
4. Take your partner on the walk - add any additional - emotions/memories/landmarks that emerge.
5. FEEDBACK/ Q&A/RESEARCH IDEAS

29. RESOURCES
PASAR Toolkit /videos/policy briefing with Runnymede Trust -
Harry Ferguson’s web pages re social work on the move:
Ali Roy’s web pahges- arts based research and learning on the move:
O’Neill, M & Roberts, B. (July 2019) Walking Methods Research on the Move, London:Routledge Research-on-the-Move
O’Neill, M., Erel, U., Kaptani, E. and Reynolds, T. (2019), ‘Borders, risk and belonging: Challenges for arts-based research in understanding the lives of women asylum seekers and migrants “at the borders of humanity” Crossings: Journal of Migration & Culture, 10:1, pp. 129–147, doi: / cjmc _1
O’Neill, M & McHugh, C. (2017) Walking with Faye from a direct access hostel to her special place in the city: walking, body and image space. A visual essay - Journal of Social Work Practice, 31:2,