Biographical research on the move: Theorising, experiencing, imagining (the Chicago School reloaded)

Abstract

This paper explores the importance of walking in biographical methods and critically reflects upon its theoretical, experiential and imaginative application 100 years after the publication of the The Polish Peasant in Europe and America. In doing so I ask how might walking as an ‘arts based’ approach to doing biographical research in collaborative and co-productive ways contribute to the conditions that support human well-being, re-ethicise social research and critically address social pathologies? In answering this question I focus upon the importance of critical theory and biographical sociology in understanding biography and history and propose that the experience of walking with another, conducting a WIBM, opens up the possibility of dialogue, listening as understanding, ‘resonance’, evokes trust and the potential for solidarity, as part of an ethics of listening. However, in doing so we must be mindful of the ethical implications of WIBM. Examples from walking biographical interviews illustrate the discussion.