New Project: Mapping everyday walking of early families, a co-created project.

Collaborative project with Dr Anna Powell (University of Huddersfield)

Last year Anna and I were awarded some funding from University of Huddersfield Cultures of Creative Health scheme to run a pilot project which sees a collaboration between us, artists (The Children’s Art School) and early families. We have undertaken walks in the Holmfirth region with families and the first of the art workshops take place this weekend so I hope to report back on how that goes soon. Below is a summary of the project based on our proposal and we are excited to finally see the work take shape with the families and artists.

Through mapping everyday walking practices of early families (families with preschool aged children), this ethnographic project seeks to understand the relationship between walking and wellbeing in families in a place-based context. This aligns with the UK Govt levelling-up agenda where place-based solutions for health inequalities and wellbeing benefit local communities not just socially and culturally but also economically.

Using creative and mobile methods this project will focus on parents walking with young children, and the relationships that are formed between bodies and spaces, reflecting on varying experiences and interpretations localities. Walking is usually taken for granted and might even be regarded as a mundane practice, but it is, in fact, a complex convergence of physical, psychological and ambient phenomena on individual and collective levels. When walking with a young companion, this complex act becomes more so: It is negotiated, affective and relational. Walking is often presented, uncritically, as a way of promoting a healthy body and mind. However, walking with a child can present logical, physical and emotional challenges. These challenges are often faced on our doorsteps and, as such, they need place-based solutions.

This will be achieved using a series of walks as a ‘mobile method’ (O’Neill and Roberts, 2020) with parents and their children, either individually or utilising pre-established groups. We want to capture people’s everyday walking experiences so the choice of routes will be chosen by the participants (i.e. the walk might be a woodland walk or a walk to the shops, but will most likely be one which is familiar to them).  We will be mindful of the differentiation between leisure walking and functional walking and how these might be reflected within the outputs. We are interested in appreciating the practical barriers early families face in their everyday walking practices (i.e. can they get a buggy through, what if the child needs to be fed or changed, how does weather impact the walk), yet we also want to find the moments of joy that can be uncovered when attuning to our local spaces with children. Indeed, the experience of walking changes as children grow - it may slow down as the child begins to walk themselves, and the child will notice and draw our attention to the more-than-human, closer to the ground. This project will use this unique perspective to examine how walking can activate care-full engagement with local spaces.

These sensory ethnographic walks will be the catalyst for generating a series of co-created visual and written outcomes, including video (we will use Go Pro cameras on buggies and toddlers), photography, alternative cartographies in the form of creative artworks, and written/spoken reflections. Following the walks we will conduct two workshops with the participants to develop these visual outcomes. These will be led by expert community artists and participants will be guided to create artworks that reflect their walks. This will form the basis of an exhibition to disseminate findings and generate further engagement and discussion around the topic.

Stay tuned for more as the project develops…