Rescue Geography: developing methods for public geographies

Jones, Phil (2017). Rescue Geography: developing methods for public geographies. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: Economic and Social Research Council. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-850030

Data description (abstract)

The idea of public geographies, inspired by Burawoy's call for public sociologies, places an emphasis on the co-construction of research data, accessible writing and the use of non-traditional media. As yet, however, the methodological implications of public geographies have not been explored. Hence this project seeks to develop the idea of rescue geography and explore the role of the walking interview as a research tool.
Rescue geography takes its inspiration from rescue archaeology, which attempts to recover archaeological data from a site before new development takes place. Contemporary regeneration projects efface existing landscapes, deeming them as 'failed', making no effort to record that which is being destroyed. The physical traces of these urban spaces can be recorded through photography and mapping, but what of the embodied understandings possessed by the community that animated those spaces?
Walked interviews may help enhance the quality of data produced by participants through placing them in the spaces being discussed, but this assumption has never been rigorously analysed. A combination of walked and in situ interviews will be employed alongside the use of a Global Positioning System (GPS) to spatially contextualise audio recordings in order to examine the effectiveness of this research technique.

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