On Doing Go-Along Interviews: Toward Sensuous Analyses of Everyday Experiences

Abstract

This article offers emergent methodological frameworks toward sensuously analyzing go-along interviews. Recently, scholars have called for analyses of go-alongs that include affective moments and experiences of the go-alongs to offer insight into everyday experiences beyond the words spoken during the interview. This article offers analytical narratives of a study with trans, queer, and non-binary youth that focus on such moments during go-alongs when the act of doing research brought conversations to a halt. Such attention allows for deeper understanding of how senses experienced during interviews impact that which was produced, and not just what was said, during go-alongs.

Aesthetics sets patients ‘free’ to recover during hospitalization with a neurological disease. A qualitative study

“…We anticipated that the “walk-along” interviews would be an appropriate approach when asking participants about how the hospital environment to the patient was meaningful, and that discussions of the environmental factors influencing the participants “being” during hospitalization would be facilitated by indirect “talk as you walk” (Carpiano, 2009 ; King & Woodroffe, 2019 ; Stiegler, 2020 ). However, in practice, we experienced that in daytime, these walks were being interrupted, disturbed or cancelled by either health professionals wanting to do rounds, medication passes or other clinical staff eager to contribute to the investigation or care of the patient.…”

“…Researchers argue for the strengths of “walk-along” interviews, especially for research studies that will examine the importance of the environment in relation to health and well-being (Carpiano, 2009 ; Flick et al, 2019 ; King & Woodroffe, 2019 ; Kusenbach, 2006 ; Stiegler, 2020 ). Using “walk-along” interviews in this study (Carpiano, 2009 ; Flick et al, 2019 ; King & Woodroffe, 2019 ; Kusenbach, 2006 ; Stiegler, 2020 ) harmonized with the hermeneutic-phenomenological approach in which the participants’ immediate moments within the hospital environment, together with their reflections of the significance of aesthetic allowed us in coming to understand and explore parts of participants lifeworld (Van Manen, 2016 ). Thus, by exposing participants to the immediate, complex and subtle meaning of the aesthetic environment, the “walk-along” interviews addressed rich, nuanced and phenomenological sensitivity to the research question (Carpiano, 2009 ; Van Manen, 2017 ).…”

Can mobile methods bridge psychology and place-based research?

“…The approach has been applied widely - from exploring the inner workings of agricultural farms to walking through city neighborhoods with participants (Mackay, Nelson, & Perkins, 2018). Stiegler (2020) makes the case for analyzing the “sensuous” nature of life, using participant reactions in situ as data. In other words, how bodies respond in real-world settings is “real” data, and mobile methods attempt to capture and organize that information.…”

Troubling ambulant research: Disabled people's socio-spatial encounters with urban un/safety and the politics of mobile methods

“…In particular, we reflect on our use of go-along interviews as part of a wider multi-method qualitative research study which explored how people with a diverse range of impairments perceive and negotiate urban safety in their everyday lives (Edwards and Maxwell, 2021). ‘Go-alongs’ are in depth interview encounters in which researchers and participants move together through places of significance for the participant (Kusenbach, 2003; Parent, 2016; Stiegler, 2021). Drawing on our experiences of using this ‘ethnographic research tool' (Kusenbach, 2003: 456), our aims in the paper are two-fold.…”