Creative Methodologies for a Mobile Criminology: Walking as Critical Pedagogy

Abstract

In this article, we build upon research that combines walking as a research method alongside participatory and biographical research to teach criminology and generate criminological knowledge and understanding in sensory and corporeal ways. We argue for a mobile criminology that attends to space, place, and time to analyse theories and concepts in criminology, as well as to undertake and apply research. In this article we share a biographical walk with David Honeywell, a convict criminologist, and two examples of criminological walks as pedagogic methods. We suggest that through walking (as a teaching, learning, and research method) we are able to get in touch with the past, present, and future of crime, justice, and punishment in ways that foster knowledge and ‘understanding’ in corporeal, relational, and material ways forming a critical, cultural, mobile pedagogy. Walking through the city, engaging with spaces, places, and stories associated with crime, is a way of seeing and feeling the history of crime, justice, and punishment in the present, as well as offering critical and imaginative methods for doing criminology in societies on the move.

Mothering in hostile environments: Migrant families negotiating the welfare and immigration regime nexus

“…Rachel Benchekroun undertook an ethnographic study over 20 months in a London neighbourhood, exploring how mothers with insecure immigration status and NRPF access support through different kinds of interpersonal relationships. Engaging in everyday activities and ‘walking with’ mothers enabled a dialogical and responsive approach (O’Neill and Reynolds, 2021; Scheper Hughes, 1995; Sinha and Back, 2014), positioning the researcher in relation with mothers affected by these issues, and with their families. The approach was conducive to deep listening, leading to nuanced understandings of mothers’ experiences and perspectives.…”

Walking‐with/worlding‐with in a global pandemic: A story of mothering in motion

“…Walking is the subject of this paper, but also contributed to the methods (for work on walking methods, see Badwan & Hall, 2020; Kowalewski & Bartłomiejski, 2020; O'Neill et al., 2020; Warren, 2017). Walking practices during the pandemic have also received notable attention, in particular how walking during this time unearthed everyday creative practices in communities (Heddon et al., 2022).…”

Tricks, practicalities and ethics of teaching outdoor walking research, including interviews and group tours

“…Existing writing considers teaching physical sciences such as biology, chemistry and physics (Beavington, 2021), furthering the study of affect (Beyes & Steyaert, 2021), critical criminology (O'Neill, et al, 2021), and embodied methods for business students (Hindley, Knowles, & Ruth, 2019). There seem to be few textbooks which help teachers to guide students with methods and how to progress.…”