Living Streets Walking Summit 2023

My reflections

Due to being committed elsewhere I was unable to attend this event in person and only able to attend the placemaking panel session at the end of the day. However, luckily for me this was the sessions I was most interested in due to my work being located in ideas of place and placemaking. Indeed, Jane Roberts (chair of Living Streets) stressed how place was central to all the debates and discussions that had occured over the course of the day. Indeed, it is stating the obvious but most walking and wheeling happens in places.

Places are not neutral. Walking is not neutral. Most walking might be mundane - walking to the local shops for example. However, as the session highlighted, we do not all have equal access to walking and wheeling spaces. There are many barriers and challenges which are varied and contingent.

I will not dwell on walking too broadly here but I wanted to consider how some of the discussions are reflected in, or made me think more deeply about my walking with infants work. There are three areas I took away:

1. Places of belonging. Where do walking mums feel like they belong? Do we feel safer in spaces of belonging and what is it about these places that make us feel like we belong? If, as a walking mum, we do not feel welcome in spaces we will not venture into them. The absence of changing facilities or a places to rest and feed. Simple interventions that make spaces more welcoming for walking mums. Beyond that - connection to the more-than-human world creates feelings of belonging. Many mums in my research spoke of specific features of the natural landscape which gave them a sense of time and space. Watching a tree change over the seasons - marking the passage of time but also anchoring us.

2. Racial inequity. This is something I think about in relation to my work and the fact that, in the main, most of my participants were white (able bodied) women. When I started the walking group in lockdown it was white women who came. We know that the pandemic disproportionately impacted black and brown women. We know that black, brown and mixed ethnicity women are more likely to have negative pregnancy/birth/postpartum experiences. We also know that black people are four times less likely to have access to outdoor space. A 2017 study found 26% of black people spend time in the countryside in comparison to around 45% of white people. So more needs to be looked at to understand the walking experiences of a more diverse range of women. This is something I will be taking on board. My work has so far lacked intersectional perspectives of any kind! I am mindful of this.

3. How we listen to diverse voices and what counts as ‘data’. I thought it was really important that there was a discussion about understanding nuanced lived experiences of those that walk and wheel. Small studies are no less important than large scale quant surveys. They all have a place. I also want to capture voices of those who cannot yet speak. How do we ‘listen’ and attune to our children’s experiences before they find their voices (indeed my son is speech delayed so my listening has to be different). On tweeting about this I was sent this BEAUTIFUL video by Adele Reed which found creative ways to listen to how children experienced their hometown.

So for what it is worth these are my takeaways and a stream of consciousness out of my weary friday brain onto the page. I have to admit that after a grant rejection recently linked to this work I was feeling despondent and I have been wondered where I take this project next and I found this panel session revitalising and very hopeful about walking and wheeling!