Psychogeography: Walking through strategy, nature and narrative

Abstract

Proposed as an urban pedestrian practice in French texts of the 1950s, the current vogue for English-language references to psychogeography dates from the 1990s. Sampling this corpus, much of it outside academic geography, this article examines some of psychogeography’s trajectories, connections and affinities, notably with nature writing. In minding gaps, the article considers gendered, decolonial and Muslim registers that extend the range of sites and protagonists, heralding other priorities and opportunities both within and beyond the North Atlantic. Finally, reflecting on what lessons lie in psychogeography and its margins for human geography, the article reconsiders questions of narrative and scale.

The Urban Walking Tour as an Experience-based Methodology for Built Environment Education in Budapest

“…The mere act of walking through a neighbourhood can affect our emotional attachment to it. The "dérivé" recommendation of the Situationist movement in the late 1960s consisted of exploring the urban context with an open mind to the built environment, eventually resulting in the contextual research field of Psychogeography (Sidaway, 2022).…”

Juxtaposition, encounter and drift: transformative social innovation through culture and the arts

“…Moving through the urban landscape in an unplanned fashion, it connects to the dialogic practices of the ready-made through moments he called "possible rendevouz", where the drifter treats a certain space as if they are meant to meet someone there (Debord, 1958). This provokes a change in attitude, a heightened perception and a special attention to the place's "psychogeography" (Sidaway, 2022). Such an approach playfully transgresses the practice of planning.…”

Re‐engaging psychology for (more) human geographies of the future

“…Building directly from anthropological work on the capacity to aspire, Tan and Bunnell (2020), for instance, underscore ways in which street performers in Taipei spatially and socially navigate urban public spaces and wider environments of opportunity and constraint. Beyond the nexus of anthropology and geography, diverse work on ‘psychogeography’, drawing upon scholarly, literary and political influences that far exceed Situationist International's well‐known use of that term, is taking variants of this critical navigational practice to new spaces within and beyond the North Atlantic (see Sidaway, 2022). And, in a rather different spatial register, research on computer games has considered how futures in virtual environments are explored, probed, reflected upon, experimented and played with (Shaw & Sharp, 2013).…”