Walking Interviews
In this episode of Talking about Methods, Professor Linda Mulcahy talks to James Campbell about walking interviews. James explains how he uses walking interviews to understand the materiality of law and help to make people talk about the places around them more than in ordinary interviews. He also tells us why he was first sceptical of the method and how that changed through his research, why you need good walking shoes and what kind of ethical and technical considerations one has to make when interviewing people in public spaces.
Readings recommended by the speaker
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Evans, J. and Jones, P. (2011) ‘The walking interview: Methodology, mobility and place’, Applied Geography, 31(2), pp. 849–858.
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Kusenbach, M. (2003) ‘Street phenomenology: The go-along as ethnographic research tool’, Ethnography, 4(3), pp. 455–485.
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Lynch, K. (1960) The Image of the City. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
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Smith, P. (2014) On Walking… And Stalking Sebald: A Guide to Going Beyond Wandering Around Looking at Stuff. Axminster: Triarchy Press.
Authored by the Speaker: James, C. (31st January, 2024) ‘Wandering and Wondering: Coming to Know Place Through Walking Interviews’ (31st January, 2024) Frontiers of Socio-Legal Studies, Methodological Musings.
About the Speaker
James Campbell
DPhil student, Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford
James is a DPhil Candidate at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies and a former Lead Student Editor of Frontiers of Socio-Legal Studies. He has a background in performance studies, legal anthropology, and the sociology of law, and his current research explores the significance of physical movement within legal spaces. He holds law degrees from the University of Strathclyde, the University of Edinburgh, and the International Institute for the Sociology of Law in Oñati. He teaches at The Open University and is a Visiting Fellow at the Law and the Humanities Hub at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies.