Accessibility statement

Methods on the Move: experiencing and imagining borders, risk & belonging

Methods on the Move: experiencing and imagining borders, risk & belonging builds upon and consolidates a long history of using walking as a creative method for doing social research with artists and communities on asylum, migration and  marginalisation.

Walking methods are a particularly relevant and helpful way of studying borders, risk and belonging given that walking can involve physically crossing borders, going into areas perceived as ‘risky,’ or, literally walking the border. Borders can also be internal[ised] and walking is a helpful route to understand the lived experiences of others as well as eliciting rich phenomenological material.

Taking a walk with someone is a powerful way of communicating about experiences; one can become ‘attuned’ to another, connect in a lived embodied way with the feelings and corporeality of another. Walking with another opens up a space for dialogue where embodied knowledge, experience and memories can be shared (O’Neill and Hubbard 2011).

The intention of the Leverhulme Research Fellowship is to:

  • explore walking as a method for conducting research on borders, risk and belonging;
  • conduct walking research with participants/co-walkers (artists, academics, researchers & residents in the UK and across the globe) to access their  experience and reflections on border places and spaces;
  • advance innovations in biographical  & visual/performative methods;
  • reflect on the social justice impact of the collaborative research findings and walks.
  • The web resource/word press site  will document the walks in the form of a walking blog that will include the  maps, images, sound files in order to contribute to understanding ‘borders, risk and belonging’ in the 21st century.

The project will also reflect upon the social justice impact of the collaborative research findings with the aim of enhancing knowledge and understanding  of walking as a method across an interdisciplinary terrain-particularly  for the arts and social sciences/sociology.

Leverhulme Trust

This project is funded by the Leverhulme Trust through their Research Fellowship scheme.

Research starts: October 2015

Research ends: September 2016

Grant reference number: RF-2015-316

Contact details

Professor Maggie O'Neill

Email: maggie.oneill@york.ac.uk