Worn Shoes: Identity, Memory and Footwear

Abstract

This article raises questions about the role of footwear within contemporary processes of identity formation and presents ongoing research into perceptions, experiences and memories of shoes among men and women in the North of England. In a series of linked theoretical discussions it argues that a focus on women, fashion and shoe consumption as a feature of a modern, western ‘project of the self’ obscures a more revealing line of inquiry where footwear can be used to explore the way men and women live out their identities as fluid, embodied processes. In a bid to deepen theoretical understanding of such processes, it takes account of historical and contemporary representations of shoes as a symbolically efficacious vehicle for personal transformation, asking how the idea and experience of transformation informs everyday and life course experiences of transition, as individuals put on and take off particular pairs of shoes. In so doing, the article addresses the methodological and analytic challenges of accessing experience that is both fluid and embodied.

Women with dementia and their handbags: Negotiating identity, privacy and ‘home’ through material culture

“…In particular, our research supports arguments that the 'small'-and often neglected -aspects of dress such as shoes and handbags can in fact illuminate the embodied, affective, and sensory dimensions of life-course transitions (Hockey et al 2013). Our research also extends such arguments to the context of dementia and frail old age.…”

“…It has explored how handbags helped women with dementia to 'tell their lives', as well as retaining connections to their memories and histories at a material and embodied level. Objects can work to extend or 'stand in' for a person (Hockey et al, 2013), and assist people with dementia to tell their story and express who they are, in the face of impaired verbal communication. The article therefore shows the potential of objects for supporting personhood in dementia care, through maintaining connections to biography, and putting 'the person before the dementia' (Kitwood, 1997).…”

The ghost of Nora Batty: A qualitative exploration of the impact of footwear, bandaging and hosiery interventions in chronic wound care

“…Putting on clothes and shoes can change the way people feel about themselves. 13 Women in these interviews were 75 and older but resisted exchanging the bandaging and heavy shoes of illness and old age for the skirts and feminine shoes they were used to wearing. Nobody wanted their shoes to "look orthopaedic" (DFU3), including a 70 year old man aware that being concerned about footwear is associated with women and might make him seem "vain" (DFU3).…”

“…4 For example, shoes have been ascribed the capacity to have 'transformative' powers and to serve as markers of, gendered identities, life course stage, social class, work and leisure activities, health and illness and transitions between these. 13 The prescription of orthotics, bandaging and hosiery to aid healing and prevent recurrence in people with complex wounds has an impact on their ability to make everyday choices about footwear and other clothing at a heightened time when embodiment is brought to the fore of consciousness. Therefore, in addition to their important function for promoting physical health, footwear, bandaging and hosiery are explored here as items by which people with wounds negotiate and understand their embodied selves in every-day life.…”

Looking “out of place”: analysing the spatial and symbolic meanings of dementia care settings through dress

“…It is shaped by the meanings and conventions of particular social spaces, but also has transformative qualities (Hockey et al 2013), materialising transitions across spatial boundaries. In this article, we use dress as a ''material lens'' (Chapman 2006) for understanding the meanings and social relations of one particular space Á the dementia care home.…”