Talking whilst walking: a geographical archaeology of knowledge

Abstract

This paper explores how understandings of the knowledge and lives of individuals can be gained through making geographical context more explicit within qualitative research methods. The paper will focus on ‘conversations in place’. More particularly, it will suggest that conversations held whilst walking through a place have the potential to generate a collage of collaborative knowledge. Drawing on the work of Casey, the paper builds upon the notion of the ‘constitutive co‐ingredience’ of place and human identity, and, through using documentary and empirical examples, will argue that ‘talking whilst walking’ can harness place as an active trigger to prompt knowledge recollection and production.