Open AccessThe Walking Interview: An Ethnographic Approach to Understanding Disability
Author(s) -
Mary Butler,
Sarah Derrett
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
the internet journal of allied health sciences and practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1540-580X
DOI - 10.46743/1540-580x/2014.1491
Subject(s) - interview , affordance , embodied cognition , situated , psychology , qualitative research , focus group , ethnography , applied psychology , perspective (graphical) , focus (optics) , social psychology , sociology , computer science , cognitive psychology , social science , physics , artificial intelligence , anthropology , optics
The purpose of this paper is to describe a method of interviewing where walking is explicitly the focus. The interviews were one element of a qualitative study, which was part of a multi-method prospective outcomes of injury study. Four participants were purposively chosen for follow up because they had an injury following a pre-existing disability. The results of this study indicate walking as a method of interviewing has the capacity to add depth and richness to the kind of information obtained. The process of walking lends itself a range of affordances, including shifting the power balance implicit in the research relationship; situated cognition describing being in place and time; performativity; and the way that the disabled body is rendered visible through this embodied process. In conclusion, the potential for engaging in activity as a method has not been explored outside of ethnography. It is suggested that this form of interviewing has particular resonance in understanding the world view of people with disability. It is a particularly appropriate method to apply in occupational therapy, which has activity as a prime focus of therapeutic engagement.