The Post-war Dream and its Afterlives
Lead Research Organisation:
Swansea University
Department Name: College of Science
Abstract
This ESRC Fellowship project will explore the sensibilities which attach to post-war aesthetics and how those born in the late 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s are navigating the present. Through a focus on the environment in which the UK's ageing population grew up, and spaces including semidetached houses, cul-de-sacs, red brick universities campuses, primary schools, and shopping centres, the research will examine how these spaces still influence contemporary life and maintain an affective appeal. Spaces built between the late 1950s and early 1970s form a large bulk of the UK's built environment. But beyond architecture and planning, they also attract deeper affective, sub-emotional or unconscious connections (Pile, 2010). This study will generate insights on how these generations are adapting and navigating social and cultural change.
Rationale.
The UK has an ageing population and is predicted to have 3 million more people aged over 65 in the period between 2028 and 2043 (ONS, 2019). Responding to this challenge is one of the four priorities in the Government's Industrial Challenge. Covid-19 lockdown(s) in 2020 and 2021 have accelerated the process of everyday life moving from physical to digital spaces (Florida, RodriguezPose, & Storper, 2020). For example: (1) physical shops such as Evans, Debenhams and Topshop closed forever in 2021; (2) millions of people started to work from home; and (3) education and other public services were delivered online. An article in The Guardian argued that shops such as Debenhams are "...far more than just shops. Their loss leaves a hole in the heart" (Toynbee, 2021). A reduced range of physical spaces could reduce opportunities for people to meet, particularly affecting older people. Others suggest that older people could driver the revival of high streets (Phillips, Walford, Hockey, & Sparks, 2021).
Theoretical and conceptual background
Theoretical and conceptual background
My PhD research project focused on one settlement of 8,000 people in south Wales. I interviewed over 20 older people to explore everyday lives of the past and using site-specific performance to coproduce a wider story of industrial and housing investment in the 1950s and 1960s. The Fellowship will take this work forward by connecting to the theory of non-representation (Thrift, 2008). This theory is relevant because many of the phenomena which older people recall are not immediately visible to a younger researcher. Moreover, a Fellowship would give me scope to concentrate on an unashamedly complex ontology, namely a "distribution of the human across some form of assemblage that includes all matter of materialities" (Anderson & Harrison, 2010, p. 13). The latter authors provide many starting points to research, coupled with a body of work on site-specific performance (Smith, 2018) and ethical considerations (Darling, 2016). The recent Routledge Handbook of Place (Edensor, Kalandides, & Kothari, 2020) has many more proposals.
A need to connect on a deeper level - and to find context.
Ageing populations pose challenges for society to be inclusive of people who have diseases such as dementia, cognitive impairment, and other age-related conditions. Methods need to offer "more than talking" (Phillipson & Hammond, 2018) and knowledge exchange with older people (Andrews, et al., 2015) should highlight that humans are storytellers and respect the importance of context and "the ordinary". This Fellowship proposal therefore centres on everyday space (see method in section iii) as "...the sphere in which distinct stories coexist, meet up, affect each other, come into conflict or cooperate. This space is not static, not a cross-section through time; it is disrupted, active and generative" (Massey, 1999). My mentor Dr Angharad Closs Stephens has published widely on topics such as sensory auto-ethnography, the affective and the atmospheric.
Rationale.
The UK has an ageing population and is predicted to have 3 million more people aged over 65 in the period between 2028 and 2043 (ONS, 2019). Responding to this challenge is one of the four priorities in the Government's Industrial Challenge. Covid-19 lockdown(s) in 2020 and 2021 have accelerated the process of everyday life moving from physical to digital spaces (Florida, RodriguezPose, & Storper, 2020). For example: (1) physical shops such as Evans, Debenhams and Topshop closed forever in 2021; (2) millions of people started to work from home; and (3) education and other public services were delivered online. An article in The Guardian argued that shops such as Debenhams are "...far more than just shops. Their loss leaves a hole in the heart" (Toynbee, 2021). A reduced range of physical spaces could reduce opportunities for people to meet, particularly affecting older people. Others suggest that older people could driver the revival of high streets (Phillips, Walford, Hockey, & Sparks, 2021).
Theoretical and conceptual background
Theoretical and conceptual background
My PhD research project focused on one settlement of 8,000 people in south Wales. I interviewed over 20 older people to explore everyday lives of the past and using site-specific performance to coproduce a wider story of industrial and housing investment in the 1950s and 1960s. The Fellowship will take this work forward by connecting to the theory of non-representation (Thrift, 2008). This theory is relevant because many of the phenomena which older people recall are not immediately visible to a younger researcher. Moreover, a Fellowship would give me scope to concentrate on an unashamedly complex ontology, namely a "distribution of the human across some form of assemblage that includes all matter of materialities" (Anderson & Harrison, 2010, p. 13). The latter authors provide many starting points to research, coupled with a body of work on site-specific performance (Smith, 2018) and ethical considerations (Darling, 2016). The recent Routledge Handbook of Place (Edensor, Kalandides, & Kothari, 2020) has many more proposals.
A need to connect on a deeper level - and to find context.
Ageing populations pose challenges for society to be inclusive of people who have diseases such as dementia, cognitive impairment, and other age-related conditions. Methods need to offer "more than talking" (Phillipson & Hammond, 2018) and knowledge exchange with older people (Andrews, et al., 2015) should highlight that humans are storytellers and respect the importance of context and "the ordinary". This Fellowship proposal therefore centres on everyday space (see method in section iii) as "...the sphere in which distinct stories coexist, meet up, affect each other, come into conflict or cooperate. This space is not static, not a cross-section through time; it is disrupted, active and generative" (Massey, 1999). My mentor Dr Angharad Closs Stephens has published widely on topics such as sensory auto-ethnography, the affective and the atmospheric.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Aled Singleton (Principal Investigator / Fellow) |
Publications
Murray, A
(2023)
Walking Friends Wales: An exploratory study
Singleton A
(2023)
The long resolution? Responding to economic and social change in postwar South Wales
in Soundings
Singleton A
(2024)
Urban research in film using walking tours and psychogeographic approaches
in Visual Studies
Singleton, A
(2023)
Spatial Hinge and Arthur Machen's The Hill of Dreams
in Literary Geographies
Singleton, A
(2023)
Qualitative Researcher Vulnerability
Singleton, A
(2023)
Urban walking: Working with others to make visual the past in the present
in Visual Studies
Singleton, A M
(2023)
Spatially-Led Video Interviews, 2021-2022
Singleton, A M
(2023)
Linking Ages: A Dialogue Between Childhood And Ageing Research
| Title | Times of Change |
| Description | This films documents a collaboration project with performers at Tin Shed Theatre to explore life in Newport through the 1960s and 1970s. Over the summer we created dramatic interventions which represent the changes that happened in Newport nearly seventy years ago. The stories in this film are developed from my interviews, newspaper articles from Newport Reference Library and Jessica Hammett's @user-wi2jg7do8k project https://www.peoplescollection.wales/u... The 1960s and 1970s were times of exciting developments in Newport, such as a shopping centre, office blocks, out-of-town housing estates and big bridges. We planned to present these stories as part of a public guided walking tour on Sunday 18 September 2022. Unfortunately, the Queen's death on 8 September meant that a certain mood would dominate our lives for ten days. The event planned for the day before her funeral could not happen. This film is the result of using the time to step back, reflect, and use the streets to take our work in a slightly different direction. Broadly we take a walk approximately 1.4km or 1 mile long and which has ten waypoints. The route is described in an article on Nation Cymru https://nation.cymru/culture/street-l... This Ffilm Bach a Mawr production was made with Tin Shed Theatre Company and had support from Swansea University and the Economic and Social Research Council. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | This relates to the dataset contained within https://dx.doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-856012. In December 2023 a paper relating to this work will be published in Visual Studies, entitled 'Urban walking: Working with others to make visual the past in the present.' |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJYrW3cJfhk |
| Description | Artistic and interdisciplinary collaboration I used some funding to commission Tin Shed Theatre to create an outdoor performance and film. The production is based on digital materials, including my PhD interviews, new accounts generated from the online interviews (see below) and other sources such as museum archives. Using workshops in the summer of 2022 writers, dramatists and performers helped me to develop site-specific theatre about everyday life changed during the 1960s in Newport, a city in Wales. The main outcome was to develop performative pieces that were filmed in September 2022. The focus on Newport showed how one place that embraced the post-war mood of renewal. The big concrete buildings capture the 1960s and 1970s and remind us of what people wanted then, such as shopping centres, motorways and suburban living. Blog article https://nation.cymru/culture/street-life-a-walk-into-newports-recent-past/ Film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJYrW3cJfhk&t An article about the collaboration is due to be published in Visual Studies in December 2023. Developing a methodology This fellowship has helped me to develop the spatially-led online interview method. The technique uses an online system such as Zoom, where the interviewee shows me places through Google StreetView and Google Maps. I used the technique to make a small contribution to consultancy exercise delivered by Swansea University for a national charity. I was invited to write for Social Science Space, the blog of international publishers SAGE: https://www.socialsciencespace.com/2022/07/using-video-to-facilitate-and-record-spatially-led-interviews/. Following a successful application for the 'Linking Ages' programme, I was inivted to Germany for three days and have written a 7,000-word book chapter which will be published either in late 2023 or early 2024. Communicating with the wider public and materials for teaching I presented my work to Centre for Ageing and Dementia Studies in November 2022. This talk explains the importance of house building during the 1950s and 1960s and the mobility of older people in contemporary UK. I have subsequently used this material in a guest lecture to architects at the Centre for Alternative Technology and for prospective undergraduate students to Swansea University. My piece for The Conversation has been read by over 20,000 people https://theconversation.com/walking-is-a-state-of-mind-it-can-teach-you-so-much-about-where-you-are-173875. I was interviewed for the Independent Teacher series https://open.spotify.com/episode/4w18J19k1ep1666Xv6Ja3Y?si=FnA08z-GQm2vx3L_m7UsHw&nd=1. In 2023 I will write a book chapter about walking research for a Routledge publication about Outdoor Education and the Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA). I have brought walking research into Swansea University MSc Research Methods Course. Developing networks and collaborations This fellowship helped me to situate my work within a wider landscape. For example, I was successful in gaining a place on the ESRC Postdoctoral Development Programme https://sealeyassociates.com/case-study-esrc/. This gave me the opportunity to share the online spatial interview technique with early career researchers in three other institutions. I also presented to the 2022 RGS-IBG International Conference, from where I have been invited to write for the Literary Geographies Journal (to be published August 2023). One of the main outcomes from the fellowship was being a named Co-Investigator on a UKRI-funded climate change project. The walking and online interview techniques feature in this project. |
| Exploitation Route | My work has been communicated in various forms, such as free-to-access blogs like Nation Cymru, being interviewed for the Independent Teacher podcast, the 22-minute YouTube film as well as peer-reviewed articles in academic books and journals. I always aim to share the key findings in accessible formats and allow people to connect with relevant linked material. I am grateful that the UK Data Service was able to review and publish materials relatively quickly. The dataset related to spatially-led video interviews is available from https://reshare.ukdataservice.ac.uk/856012/. As such, any other researcher can look at the participant information sheets, interview schedules as well as some of the video extracts. A narrative account is available from the Sage Social Science Space blog. I drew attention to the substantive research question by sharing walking research techniques. For example, an article for The Conversation has been read by over 20,000 people https://theconversation.com/walking-is-a-state-of-mind-it-can-teach-you-so-much-about-where-you-are-173875. Thanks to Creative Commons the same text has been shared in print form across the UK and translated into two other languages. There is more work to be published on what I call 'The Post-war Dream'. For example, there will be a forthcoming piece in journal Soundings and presentations to conferences in 2023. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy,Education,Environment,Healthcare,Government, Democracy and Justice,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Description | Some of the online interview techniques were used in a piece of research for charity Living Streets. This has helped to understand the impact of a 3-year health project called Walking Friends Wales, which aims to bring older people together in walking groups. The performance piece and film, produced in collaboration with Tin Shed Theatre, has been of use to the contributors themselves and to the arts community in Wales. The material was used as part of an arts festival in November 2022 and played at two public showings. We hope to develop this work as a future project, potentially bringing in a combination of arts and research funding. Before the fellowship I spent some time with an NHS Mental Health Partnership in England, helping them with a service review. My work on walking conversations and group walks has since been more widely adopted. During the fellowship I worked with the NHS Trust to publish an open access book chapter in a Routledge Qualitative Research book (June 2023) and a piece for a Mental Health Practice (forthcoming). |
| First Year Of Impact | 2022 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Healthcare,Government, Democracy and Justice,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections,Transport |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal,Policy & public services |
| Description | Centre for Ageing & Dementia Research Seminar. Everyday space of the late 1950s and 1960s: living through the Post War Dream and beyond. |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| URL | https://youtu.be/wVroNcf8IZo |
| Description | APPROACH FundingCall-Social Behavioural & DesignResearch Programme (SBDRP) |
| Amount | £98,359 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Stirling |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2022 |
| End | 09/2023 |
| Title | Spatially-led Video Interview |
| Description | Online interviews are being used partly due to distancing restrictions imposed by Covid-19. However, they also allow us to capture the experiences of people who are unable to take a walk outside or may be some distance from the place that they wish to discuss. The interview follows a broadly chronological approach, following a Topic Guide, to trigger - or recall - memories. The interview may use examples such as old newspaper cuttings, old photographs from the library and online maps such as Google Eath. The participant may choose to use this interview as a chance to map memories and feelings alongside photographs, drawings, maps, or other means. The eventual aim is to edit the digital media to produce as part of short films. This technique is also referred to as the 'The Digital Walk of the Mind' at times, such as for the ethics application. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This technique is being used in the collaboration with Living Streets, for which interviews commenced in March 2022. The expected benefits of this research are: • to understand the ways people used space in the past and how this influences life today; • for younger generations to understand the perspective of people older than them; and • to develop a method for online video interviews which responds to the limits imposed by Covid-19. |
| URL | https://reshare.ukdataservice.ac.uk/856012/ |
| Title | Spatially-Led Video Interviews, 2021-2022 |
| Description | This work develops a spatially-led practice to negotiate and share individuals' perspectives of their own life course. This technique is designed particularly for researching culture(s) and feeling(s) - everyday life (Highmore, 2011) - attached to a given epoch. The focus of my ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship project is to understand the increasingly suburban and car-oriented places built in the 1960s and 1970s. The technique relies upon online mapping systems and technologies which allow video conversations to be recorded. The broad methodology takes essential elements of one-to-one biographical walking interviews. Sometimes referred to as go-alongs (Carpiano, 2009), the participant leads the way to show spaces and place significant to their life, with the interviewer guiding the conversation. Covid-19 restrictions limited face-to-face interviews (Hall, Gaved, & Sargent, 2021) but also opened the possibility for many conversations to move on to digital platforms. Spatially-led interviews are hosted on digital platforms such as Zoom, where participants and researchers share walks through media such as Google Maps. The conversation is digitally recorded, providing a complete visual record of the spaces visited during the conversation alongside the faces of the participants and their commentary. There are three specific films in this record. They concern an interview with Pat Wright, who was happy for her likeness to be used. • Moving to Newport in 1963. This gives context about the advantages of modern housing in the 1960s compared to older terraced houses with no central heating. • Demolitions in Newport mid-1970s. Account of the plan to build a by-pass road through Newport. Interesting background on renewing urban fabric of towns and cities in the UK and the rise of Civic Trusts to protect the built environment. • Video opening Newport Library 1968. Context about the opening of Newport Library. Reveals power of geography to connect people with memories. Two other individuals were interviewed using this technique and this data may be made available at a later date. Theoretical considerations Walking approaches allow us to explore the affective connections that people have to spaces such as streets and neighbourhoods. Though less atmospheric and embodied than being on an outdoor walk, the walk through digitally-mapped space is promotes the interviewee to recall memories and feelings. The non-verbal elements of "vitality, performativity, corporeality, sensuality, and mobility" (Vannini, 2015, p. 318) are partly captured through the visual records. These interviews complement other biographical or life story techniques and are particularly useful for meeting people some distance away. In my case I seek to explore the attitudes and values of people who are now considered to be older. The main application for my project is to develop participatory walking tours (Evans & Jones, 2011). The stories that people share through these interviews are interpreted by performance artists, whose playful approach helps to communicate with the public (people of all ages). This is an edited 2-minute film captured using the spatially-led digital walking interview technique developed though my project. The participant reveals her memories of Newport Library being opened on April 5 1968. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This data has been used papers that are in the course of being published (detailed within this record). The method is also being used in the ongoing OPTIC project, funded through UKRI. See more https://www.ageing-sbdrp.co.uk/understanding-older-peoples-perspectives-and-imaginaries-of-climate-change-optic-emplaced-creativity-to-improve-environments-for-healthy-ageing/ |
| URL | https://reshare.ukdataservice.ac.uk/856012/ |
| Description | Linking Ages |
| Organisation | University of Stuttgart |
| Country | Germany |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | I successfully applied to be part of a three-day workshop in Germany which purses the aim of linking ages. The mission considers the way in which age is widely used as a basis for regulating and organising social processes, assigning social roles, rights and responsibilities and providing orientation. For example, the appropriate time range to start working, have children or retire. I have written a 7,000-word book chapter which concerns participatory spatial methods, and which will form part of a collective text book published by Routledge later in 2023. |
| Collaborator Contribution | There are nearly 30 contributions to the collective book. As such, I am paired with a group of three academics based in Austria who are writing a chapter from a geographical perspective. The overall project is led by the University of Stuttgart and the involves researchers from across the World. |
| Impact | 3-day conference in Germany Book to be published with Routledge (2023 or 2024) |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Living Streets Walking Friends Wales |
| Organisation | Living Streets |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | I worked with Living Streets as part of the Walking Friends Wales project, to trial the Video Recorded Walk of the Mind. Following ethical approval from the College of Science in February 2022, this technique uses an online format, normally Zoom, to conduct an interview with people as they walk through memories and emotions. The intention of the video format is to bring visual materials, such as images and maps, into the conversation and so deepen the potential for geographical research of the life course. I am particularly keen to understand long term attitudes to walking and so inform Welsh Government's Health & Active Fund https://gov.wales/healthy-and-active-fund-action |
| Collaborator Contribution | Living Streets have an existing partnership with the Centre for Innovative Ageing (Swansea University) as part of the Walking Friends Wales project. Through this initiative, I was able to use the spatially-led video interview technique. These individuals fit the age profile (aged 50+) and geographical focus for my research project. Working with Living Streets provides me with an active project through which I can explore my research approach and also get feedback. There is potential for the findings to feed into Welsh Government policy and therefore impact future delivery of the Healthy and Active Fund https://gov.wales/healthy-and-active-fund-action. |
| Impact | The outputs will emerge later on in 2023. |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Walking Interventions and Practices to support early Recovery (WIPR) |
| Organisation | Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | The collaboration with Mark Batterham and clinical colleagues from AWP (Avon Wilthshire Mental Health Partnership) centres on walking interventions (such as 1:1 conversations and group walks) within mental health practice - more specifically people on the path to recovery from psychosis. In early 2021 I helped to design an ethical research approach, and to prepare an interview topic guide. I led the interviews with staff and service users for AWP in spring 2021. Since starting my postdoc project in October, the collaboration has moved towards studying outdoor research techniques and researcher vulnerability. For example, the researcher is no longer in their institutional environment and the participants (service users) have more control over the relationship. I have brought theoretical and social science rigor to the relationship and have been mentoring Mark as he follows an NIHR Fellowship. We are co-authors for a chapter within Routledge's forthcoming (June 2023) Researcher Vulnerability book. |
| Collaborator Contribution | My partners at AWP provided the initial opportunity to conduct research in 2021. Through AWP I was provided with a clinical licence to interview service users for the purpose of this research. AWP have provided support to jointly write and present papers at the Royal Geographical Society Conference 2021 and also the Qualitative Research Symposium in January 2022. The time provided by AWP staff is invaluable to securing the book chapter on Researcher Vulnerability. Through spring 2022 we will submit the manuscript to Routledge, ahead of publication later in June 2023. We have also had a paper accepted for the journal Mental Health Practice. In the long term AWP could be a collaborator on a research project within which Swansea University Geography Department is a partner. |
| Impact | This is a multi-disciplinary collaboration between social sciences (Aled - geography) with psychological and psychiatric practice within the NHS (AWP). Presentation to the Royal Geographical Society conference (2021) Presentation to the Qualitative Research Symposium at the University of Bath (January 2022) and WISERD, Swansea (July 2022) Book chapter 'Framing Transdisciplinary Research as an Assemblage: A Case Study from a Mental Health Setting' accepted for publication by Routledge Qualitative Research series under the title 'Qualitative Researcher Vulnerability: Negotiating, Experiencing and Embracing' (2023). More information https://www.routledge.com/Qualitative-Researcher-Vulnerability-Negotiating-Experiencing-and-Embracing/Clift-Batlle-Bekker-Chudzikowski/p/book/9781032393339 |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Blog article - How Covid-19 made me think again: digitally recording walking interviews |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | This blog article explains how the pandemic challenged the foundations of the work which underpins my PhD research, and how there could be some useful new digital opportunities for researching biographical accounts of the past, present and future. I know that this blog has been used by postgraduate students and it has also enabled me to frame and develop a research methodology which I am now trialling. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://walesdtp.ac.uk/methodsblog/2021/11/09/how-covid-19-made-me-think-again-digitally-recording-w... |
| Description | Blog article for Sage Social Science Space: |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This is the final blog in this three-part account of a project which took voices gathered through spatially-led video interviews in spring 2022, and developed them into public street theatre with performers and artists. The film made from this project can be found here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJYrW3cJfhk and was shown to over 40 people through an arts festival in Newport during November 2022. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.socialsciencespace.com/2022/08/developing-engaging-street-theatre-from-interview-materia... |
| Description | Blog article for Sage Social Science Space: Developing Engaging Street Theatre from Interview Materials |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This blog post builds on the introduction to spatially-led video interviews. This article outlines the process of taking such digital material and working with writers, dramatists and performers to develop site-specific theatre. Over two workshop days we worked through ways to represent how everyday life changed during the 1960s in Newport, a city in Wales. The main outcome from our exercise was to develop performative pieces that will be part of public walk in September 2022. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.socialsciencespace.com/2022/08/developing-engaging-street-theatre-from-interview-materia... |
| Description | Blog article for Sage Social Science Space: Spatially-led Video Interviews |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | In this first of a series of three blog posts, I reflect on my research experience of taking the very naturalistic and low-tech concept of walking conversations and outdoor events into a digital form. This first article introduces the reasons which led me to innovate an existing technique into an online format, and the experience of prototyping the technique. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.socialsciencespace.com/2022/07/using-video-to-facilitate-and-record-spatially-led-interv... |
| Description | Ethnography cours: Walking research practical |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | This activity was part a course for second year undergraduate geography students, giving them the background knowledge and practical experience of developing their ethnographic skils. Following a one hour presentation (repeared twice) I asked students to explore a location of their own choice over 30 minutes. In a 500-word pratical write-up they reported on people, place, atmospheres and signage and with 5 supporting images. The responses from over 30 students shows that they have considered the material presented to them and taken some quite imaginative and thoughtful approaches. The assessment counts towards their module on dissertation and research skills |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Nation Cymru website - Street life: a walk into Newport's recent past |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This piece explains the main aims and outcomes of my research project. In this case I explain working with performers at Tin Shed Theatre to explore life in Newport through the 1960s and 1970s. The article explain how we created dramatic interventions to represent the changes that happened in Newport nearly seventy years ago. This blog article was used to support a public event which happened in November 2022. There is an accompanying map and some of the audio materials are also available for a future event. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://nation.cymru/culture/street-life-a-walk-into-newports-recent-past/ |
| Description | Royal Geographical Society Annual International Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | This paper explains how Covid-19 led to the evolution of my geographical practice. My research explores everyday feelings (Highmore, 2011) from the past, such as relationships with streets and neighbourhoods in the 1960s and 1970s, and how this influences relationships with public and private space within the ageing population. The methodology involves producing biographical interviews into participatory walking tours (Evans & Jones, 2011) and drawing further meaning from the material in collaboration with performance artists. Though outdoor walks are less compromised by Covid-19 restrictions, the pandemic posed severe limits on undertaking face-to-face interviews (Hall, Gaved, & Sargent, 2021). However, such conversations lend themselves to digital walks of the mind through platforms such as Zoom because participants take inspiration by sharing photos, maps, and other media. Following an Open-Source pilot project in 2021, I gained ethical consent from Swansea University to conduct and record digital walks through Zoom. The digital material can be edited and shared in ways that are not possible with conventional interviews. For example, working through Zoom with Tin Shed Theatre in Newport, Wales, and their community-focused Public Theatre Company on a deliberative approach (Willis & al, 2021) to develop new material. We then work with performance artists to create film and prepare for a new public walking tour scheduled for later in 2022. In conclusion, I aim to show that gathering and recording spatially-led oral histories through a digital video platform, instead of in-person, has transformative potential for public participation in co-producing research and enhancing impact. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.rgs.org/research/annual-international-conference/ |
| Description | The Conversation: Walking is a state of mind - it can teach you so much about where you are |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | This blog article explains how walking changes the way we tell our life stories. Taking a street we once took often unlocks things: we might not struggle as much to remember specific dates. We find a freedom of sorts to go deeper into our memories. Since being published in May 2022 this article has reached over 20,000 readers, which made it the 10th most read article from Swansea University in 2022. The text from my article has been shared under creative commons. The article appeared in print with the Western Mail, in Scotland and was translated into Polish and other languages. The text was used by the Royal Geographical Society for their teaching website. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://theconversation.com/walking-is-a-state-of-mind-it-can-teach-you-so-much-about-where-you-are-... |
| Description | Times of Change (22-minute film) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This films documents a collaboration project with performers at Tin Shed Theatre to explore life in Newport through the 1960s and 1970s. Over the summer we created dramatic interventions which represent the changes that happened in Newport nearly seventy years ago. The stories in this film are developed from my interviews, newspaper articles from Newport Reference Library and other research. This film has been shown to: Architecture students At 2 public events for an arts festival To creative writing students We are hoping to enter it for some art and film festivals in 2023 Background The 1960s and 1970s were times of exciting developments in Newport, such as a shopping centre, office blocks, out-of-town housing estates and big bridges. We planned to present these stories as part of a public guided walking tour on Sunday 18 September 2022. Unfortunately, the Queen's death on 8 September meant that a certain mood would dominate our lives for ten days. The event planned for the day before her funeral could not happen. This film is the result of using the time to step back, reflect, and use the streets to take our work in a slightly different direction. Broadly we take a walk approximately 1.4km or 1 mile long and which has ten waypoints. The route is described in an article on Nation Cymru https://nation.cymru/culture/street-l... This Ffilm Bach a Mawr production was made with Tin Shed Theatre Company and had support from Swansea University and the Economic and Social Research Council. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJYrW3cJfhk |
| Description | Workshop on Walking Research and Psychogeography |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | I organised a 2-hour session on walking research for 11 postgraduate students at Swansea University. We walked from the campus into a nearby residential area and then returned via the nearby hospital. 1. Walking interview. Explore both one-to-one or one-to-many experiences where we talk and talk. Try to break down ways of telling stories about ourselves. 2. Psychogeography - taking the choice out of your hands; opening up the senses to noticing things. The students reflected on how they made assumptions about society based on the different evidence. 3. How can two nearby spaces feel so different? We explored the quiet and busy side of one main road. Students reflected on how they capture these interviews through audio and other means. 4. Inhabiting a character and visiting the hospital. The ethical considerations of doing research in public. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |