By Yarden Woolf
Literature tells us a walking interview is when a researcher walks alongside a participant during an interview (Kinney, 2017). This process usually involve a researcher accompanying participants and speaking with them, usually on foot and in a specific location (Kinney, 2017). Specifically, walking interviews have been used as a method to explore experience (Braun and Clarke, 2013), as they can produce rich data by allowing participants to be in the environment being discussed (Evans and Jones, 2011).
I first used this method during my MSc in Urban Design and City Planning at UCL. There, I walked with participants along the Regent’s Canal in London, to understand how they experience it, and how this relates to the canal’s design. As part of this study, I walked with canal-users from Granary Square to Camden Market, asking them questions about their activities, perceptions and emotions while walking and cycling along the canal. Through this, I discovered how different participants experience the canal, and which of its spatial attributes (e.g., paths, vegetation, location, access, outdoor furniture) affects their experiences and how. I am currently in the process of co-authoring a paper to publish these results. Figure 1 was taken during one of the walking interviews in the Regent’s Canal.
These days, I am in my third year of a PhD research at UWE Bristol, and my study explores the relationship between students’ experience in greenspace, nature connectedness and pro-environmental orientation. I am looking at university students from both UWE and the University of Bristol, and utilising semi-structured walking interviews as one of my data collection methods. As shown by previous studies, this method is particularly beneficial for examining the relationship between experience in greenspace and physical attributes of the greenspace (Veitch et al., 2020). The use of walking interviews in social research has been increasing, particularly to explore the connection between self and place (Heijnen, Stewart and Espiner, 2022; Kinney, 2017).
During one of these interviews, I walked with a participant in St. James Park in the city centre. As we were walking around, the participant explained he suffers from anxiety and whenever he needs to, he visits this park, sits on a bench, and writes in his journal. He further described how looking at the light shining through the trees and hearing birdsong allows him to relax, and that he always feels calmer when leaving this part than when he walked in. Figure 2 depicts the views this participant mentioned as helping him relax.
In another walking interview, I walked around UWE’s Community Garden (figure 3) with a participant who spoke about the key role this greenspace plays in providing him with an escape from lectures and assignments. This emphasises students’ need for accessible greenspaces on campus. This participant also mentioned seasonality, and how he enjoyed seeing this greenspace transform through the seasons, watching vegetation grow and change colours, and listening to birds who frequent this space.
As I reflect on these walking interviews and the data collected, I remember what it is that made me chose this method. First, engaging in conversation while walking creates an informal atmosphere, particularly when interviews are participant-led (e.g., participants choose the greenspace and route). Second, exploring the greenspaces with participants enabled me, the researcher, to better understand their emotional and perceptual experiences. Third, being at the greenspaces evoked memories in participants, reminding them of experiences they may have not recollected through other form of interview (such as pictures).
I would like to end with Wordsworth’s poem, which to me encapsulates what walking in nature is:
‘Sweet was the walk along the narrow lane
At noon, the bank and hedge-rows all the way
Shagged with wild pale green tufts of fragrant hay,
Caught by the hawthorns from the loaded wain,
Which Age with many a slow stoop strove to gain;
And childhood, seeming still most busy, took
His little rake; with cunning side-long look,
Sauntering to pluck the strawberries wild, unseen.
Now, too, on melancholy’s idle dreams
Musing, the lone spot with my soul agrees,
Quiet and dark; for through the thick wove trees
Scarce peeps the curious star till solemn gleams
The clouded moon, and calls me forth to stray
Thro’ tall, green, silent woods and ruins gray’
Yarden Woolf is a fully funded PhD researcher at UWE Bristol, landscape architect and urban planner. If you have any questions, feel free to email yarden.woolf@uwe.ac.uk
References cited in this blog:
Braun, V. and Clarke, V. (2013) Successful qualitative research: a practical guide for beginners. Los Angeles: SAGE.
Evans, J. and Jones, P. (2011) The walking interview: Methodology, mobility and place. Applied Geography [online]. 31 (2), pp. 849–858.
Heijnen, I., Stewart, E. and Espiner, S. (2022) On the move: the theory and practice of the walking interview method in outdoor education research. Annals of Leisure Research [online]. 25 (4), pp. 529–547.
Kinney, P. (2017) social research Update – Walking Interviews [online]. Available from: https://grandmas-story.eu/media/com_form2content/documents/c3/a203/f38/SRU67.pdf.
Veitch, J., Flowers, E., Ball, K., Deforche, B. and Timperio, A. (2020) Exploring Children’s Views on Important Park Features: A Qualitative Study Using Walk-Along Interviews. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health [online]. 17 (13), p. 4625.