SENSEWALKING: SENSORY WALKING METHODS FOR SOCIAL SCIENTISTS

RGS-IBG Annual Conference SENSEWALKING: SENSORY WALKING METHODS FOR SOCIAL SCIENTISTS in Manchester, 26-28 August 2009. Convenors: Mags Adams (University of Salford) and Kye Askins (Northumbria University). In recent years there has been a growing interest in the role of non-visual senses in the relationships between people and places, in particular how 'sense of place' involves complex corporeal encounters with our environments - how we 'sense' place in terms of sound, smell, touch, taste (alongside sight) as well as understand it through social constructions and circulated texts (Wylie, 2005; Butler, 2006; Edensor, 2006; Pink, 2007). Researchers from across disciplines have worked with the 'sensory walking' concept, utilising sensewalks, soundwalks, listening walks and smell walks as a means to involve participants in discussion, interview, photo-survey, GIS mapping and sound recording, among other innovations/ adaptations. While a recent ESRC seminar series addressed 'Sensescapes' more broadly there has not been a concerted effort to bring together researchers working with beyond-the-visual senses as method. This session seeks to rectify such a gap and welcomes papers from geographers, sociologists, artists, anthropologists, planners, landscape architects and designers (amongst others), acknowledging the multi-disciplinary nature of much of the work in this area. More information: