Publications

Effective information communication and public participation in the planning process are important elements for facilitating successful environmental decision-making. Previous research has demonstrated the importance of these factors for delivering benefits to a wide range of stakeholders in the planning system by increasing the transparency and efficiency of the planning process. Planning information relating to the…

This evaluation of the 2006-2011 ESRC Census Programme sets outs to provide an overall assessment of the quality, usage and impact of services and research funded by the Programme. This evaluation assesses the overall strengths and weaknesses of the Programme and provides recommendations on continued funding for the Programme beyond 2011, taking into account other…

This article critically explores data generated within a participatory research project with young people in the care of a local authority, the (Extra)ordinary Lives project. The project involved ethnographic multi-media data generation methods used in groups and individually with eight participants (aged 10—20) over a school year and encouraged critical reflexive practices throughout. The article…

While accepting that the concept of restricted code has a troubled history that resulted in Bernstein being associated with deficit models of working-class life, it is argued that the concept should be re-imagined rather than abandoned. Bernstein’s early work refers to restricted code as a form of condensed shorthand established through familiarity that was not…

Mobile research methods seek to observe “directly or in digitally enhanced forms mobile bodies undergoing various performances of travel, work, and play” (Sheller and Urry 2006: 217). In recent years a small, but growing, number of academics have begun to use ‘walking interviews’ as a legitimate mobile method (cf. Ricketts Hein et al. 2008; Lorimer…

“To question the habitual. But that’s just it, we’re habituated to it. … What we need to question is bricks, concrete, glass, our table manners, our utensils, our tools, the way we spend our time, our rhythms” (Georges Perec 1999: 210, my emphasis) This paper is about walking as both practice and potential method. It…

The journey to school is a daily ritual for millions of families. This form of everyday mobility gives shape to most children’s and their parent’s daily routines. Concerns over sedentary lifestyles, traffic congestion and environmental degradation have brought this rather mundane and commonplace travel behaviour into recent academic and policy focus. Among primary school children,…

Mobile methods, and in particular walking methodologies, are increasingly adopted by researchers wishing to engage with ideas of place and identity. Walking is a fundamental practice in our social lives, and it has also been a common method adopted in much anthropological and, increasingly, sociological fieldwork (Lee and Ingold, 2006). Such approaches are underpinned by…

Issue 12 of WISERD’s Qualitative Researcher contains: Editorial – Kate Moles The restorative dynamic of walking together – Karolina Ronander Exploring spatial (dis)locations through the use of roving focus groups – Joshua Inwood and Deborah Martin Toy tours: reflections on walking-whilst-talking with young children at home – Olivia Stevenson and Claire Adey Walking with Andrei…

Recently, social scientists have increasingly been seeking analytical purchase on the mobile nature of everyday life (Buscher, Urry & Witchger forthcoming; Buscher & Urry 2009; Ek & Hultman 2008; Ross, Renold, Holland & Hillman 2009) and the performativity of social action (Crang 2005; Cresswell 2002; Lorimer 2005; Thrift and Dewsbury 2000). The purpose of this…