Research Methods: Walking Interviews

A key aim for PlaceLab’s Voice Vibe & Vision research project is to gain insights into how local Brunswick residents feel about the question: What Makes Brunswick, Brunswick? The research objective is to share rich insights into what gives Brunswick its unique character with the wider community to enable conversations about Brunswick’s future.

To do this, we are gathering local perspectives on the sounds, images, words, stories, and imaginings using a range of methods, including surveys, workshops, and interviews.

While the PlaceLab interview approach varies across our projects, all our interviews share a common belief in what scholar Svend Brinkmann describes as the ‘magic’ of interviewing:

For Voice, Vibe & Vision, we have chosen to use an interview approach called ‘walking interviews’ . Put simply, walking interviews are ‘when the researcher walks alongside the participant during an interview in a given location’ . Walking interviews have emerged as a qualitative research method used to explore research participants’ connection between self and place , within the social environment of their neighbourhood. As Penelope Kinney (2017) writes,

Our Voice, Vibe & Vision walking interviews adopt a participant-led, participatory approach. This style has been identified by Clark and Emmel (2010) as well-aligned to research seeking to understanding a person’s attitudes, knowledge and beliefs about a particular area and their attachment to the area.

So far, our Brunswick researchers, Nhu and Louise, have undertaken two walking interviews with local residents, with another six to eight planned. Louise offers this insight into the way the walking interviews are unfolding:

Taking guidance from Emmel and Clark’s (2009) toolkit , Nhu and I started by inviting our first two participants to decide where they wanted to walk in the Upfield corridor region. They each chose a starting point and time, and then lead us along the route, making decisions about streets, lanes and pathways taken. As the conversations unfolded, we found ourselves stopping at different points. This might be a park for one person’s dog to have a play or a building under renovation where they once had a studio, or a local landmark that carries a particular meaning or symbolism for another person. It was an incredibly organic process, in which we had to note our urges as researchers to guide or direct the interview, while also allowing space for our human urges to be part of the conversation.

Nhu and I have been reflecting on the process. The participatory walking interview creates space for the interaction between the person we are interviewing and ourselves, as researchers, to be in conversation. It feels comfortable and natural. So far, the ‘participants’ have found different ways to share how much they valued and enjoyed the experience. And Nhu and I have felt ‘visible’ as researchers. Importantly, I think it allows us to feel honest and congruent as people. The conversations seem to unfold organically – it is as if we all carry a shared responsibility for holding the interview space – creating room for shared and individual understandings to emerge. The whole process feels like what Brinkmann (2013) describes as ‘the possibility of growth in understanding’ (p. 160). 

The things we are learning have such richness. But most of all, it’s proving to be such a warm and joyful process, as you can see in this selfie taken by Pablo, our second walking interview participant!

References

Brinkmann, S. (2013). Conversations as research: Philosophies of the interview. Counterpoints, 354, 149–167. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42981168

Clark, A. & Emmel, N. (2010). Using walking interviews. Realities, 13, 1-6. https://eprints.ncrm.ac.uk/id/eprint/1323/1/13-toolkit-walking-interviews.pdf

Emmel, N. & Clark, A. (2009). The methods used in connected lives: Investigating networks, neighbourhoods and communities. ESRC National Centre for Research Methods, NCRM Working Paper Series, 06/09. http://eprints. ncrm.ac.uk/800/

Evans, J. & Jones, P. (2011). The walking interview: Methodology, mobility and place. Applied Geography, 31 (2), 849-58. https://eprints.ncrm.ac.uk/id/eprint/1323/1/13-toolkit-walking-interviews.pdf

Kinney, P. (2017). Walking interviews. Social research update, 67(1-4). https://grandmas-story.eu/media/com_form2content/documents/c3/a203/f38/SRU67.pdf