If the shoe fits: Footwear, identification and transition

Hockey, J (2017). If the shoe fits: Footwear, identification and transition. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: Economic and Social Research Council. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-850853

Data description (abstract)

This project investigates the way individuals take on and move between identities, both on a daily basis and throughout their life course.
It asks what part the body plays in this process and how individual self perception meshes with other people's views of oneself. These questions will be addressed through the example of footwear, an item of clothing attributed with the capacity to change identities, both in contemporary advertising and popular culture, as well as folklore and fairy tales.
Through qualitative methods, the project asks how the personal transformations that shoes are seen to achieve in folklore and contemporary advertising might be evident in shifts or transitions of identity in everyday life and across the life course.
Five focus groups with participants of different ages, genders and relationships to shoes, will discuss their ideas and experiences of footwear, using images of shoes from popular culture as stimulus material. 20 members of these groups will then be recruited for one year's individual case study work. Along with 3 interviews, the Senior Research Fellow will join each person on shopping trips, video them wearing their shoes, and ask them to photograph their shoes and keep a diary of their shoe experiences

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