Walking Methods in Criminology
'...we suggest that walking can be a way of both knowing and understanding the history of crime, justice and punishment in city spaces.' There is a long tradition of walking in ethnographic and anthropological research, but not in the disciplines of Sociology or Criminology. Building upon earlier work combining walking as a method alongside participatory, creative, biographical and visual research (O’Neill 2010, Hubbard, O’Neill & Stenning 2013, O’Neill 2014) to generate knowledge and understanding, we suggest that walking can be a way of both knowing and understanding the history of crime, justice, and punishment in city spaces. The development of the York Crime Walk illustrates this.
Walking through the city, engaging with spaces and places associated with crime, justice and punishment are ways of seeing, feeling and understanding the history of crime, justice and punishment in the present. In the development of this walk we sought to encounter history, architecture, sociology and criminology in sensory and corporeal ways. Walking is a distinct method which attunes a person to a place, allowing them to engage in the critical recovery of histories of crime, justice and punishment in the present. In the context of both Sociological and Criminological research walking is not just a tool used to travel from A to B but integral to our perception of an environment and a powerful way of communicating about experiences and ways of knowing across cultural divides, time and history. In walking the city of York, we are able to focus our attention on the sensory, kinaesthetic and mobile dimensions of lived experience and the relationship between the visual and other senses. Walking, as such, enables multi-sensory experience and ways of knowing (Edensor 2010, Myers 2010, Pink et al 2010, Pink 2008, Pink 2012, O’Neill and Perivolaris 2014). |
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Select bibliography:
Edensor, T. (2010) ‘Walking in Rhythms: place, regulation, style and the flow of experience’ in Visual Studies, 25 (1): 46–58.
Foucault, M (1977) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, London: Allen Lane.
Myers, M. (2010) ‘Walk with me, talk with me: the art of conversive wayfinding’, Visual Studies, 26 (1): 50–68
O’Neill, M. (2014) ‘Participatory Biographies: Walking, Sensing, Belonging’ in O’Neill, M. Roberts, B. Sparkes, A. (Eds) Advances in Biographical Methods: creative applications, London: Routledge
O’Neill, M. and Hubbard, P. (2010) ‘Walking, sensing, belonging: ethno-mimesis as performative praxis’, Visual Studies, 25 (1): 46–58.
O’Neill, M. and Stenning, P. (2013). Walking biographies and innovations in visual and participatory methods: Community, Politics and Resistance in Downtown East Side Vancouver, in C. Heinz and G. Hornung (Eds) The Medialization of Auto/Biographies: Different Forms and their Communicative Contexts, Hamburg: UVH.
O’Neill, M. and Perivolaris, J. (2014) ‘A Sense of Belonging: Walking with Thaer through migration, memories and space ‘in Crossings: journal of migration and culture Volume 5 Issue 2-3
Pink, Sarah (2008). Mobilising Visual Ethnography: Making Routes, Making Place and Making Images [27 paragraphs]. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 9(3), Art. 36, http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0803362.
Pink, S. Hubbard, P. O’Neill, M. & Radley, A. (2010) ‘Walking across disciplines from ethnography to arts practice’ in Visual Studies, 25 (1): 46–58
Pink, S. (2012) Advances in Visual Methods, London: Sage
Wacquant, L. (2010) ‘Join a gym or a stamp club, says boxing professor ‘in Network Summer http://loicwacquant.net/assets/Papers/JOINAGYMSTAMPCLUB.pdf [accessed: 15th February 2016]
Wacquant, L. (2008) Urban Outcasts, Cambridge: Polity
Wacquant, L. (2009) Punishing the Poor, Cambridge: Polity
Foucault, M (1977) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, London: Allen Lane.
Myers, M. (2010) ‘Walk with me, talk with me: the art of conversive wayfinding’, Visual Studies, 26 (1): 50–68
O’Neill, M. (2014) ‘Participatory Biographies: Walking, Sensing, Belonging’ in O’Neill, M. Roberts, B. Sparkes, A. (Eds) Advances in Biographical Methods: creative applications, London: Routledge
O’Neill, M. and Hubbard, P. (2010) ‘Walking, sensing, belonging: ethno-mimesis as performative praxis’, Visual Studies, 25 (1): 46–58.
O’Neill, M. and Stenning, P. (2013). Walking biographies and innovations in visual and participatory methods: Community, Politics and Resistance in Downtown East Side Vancouver, in C. Heinz and G. Hornung (Eds) The Medialization of Auto/Biographies: Different Forms and their Communicative Contexts, Hamburg: UVH.
O’Neill, M. and Perivolaris, J. (2014) ‘A Sense of Belonging: Walking with Thaer through migration, memories and space ‘in Crossings: journal of migration and culture Volume 5 Issue 2-3
Pink, Sarah (2008). Mobilising Visual Ethnography: Making Routes, Making Place and Making Images [27 paragraphs]. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 9(3), Art. 36, http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0803362.
Pink, S. Hubbard, P. O’Neill, M. & Radley, A. (2010) ‘Walking across disciplines from ethnography to arts practice’ in Visual Studies, 25 (1): 46–58
Pink, S. (2012) Advances in Visual Methods, London: Sage
Wacquant, L. (2010) ‘Join a gym or a stamp club, says boxing professor ‘in Network Summer http://loicwacquant.net/assets/Papers/JOINAGYMSTAMPCLUB.pdf [accessed: 15th February 2016]
Wacquant, L. (2008) Urban Outcasts, Cambridge: Polity
Wacquant, L. (2009) Punishing the Poor, Cambridge: Polity
