Towards an agenda for oral history and geography: (Re)locating emotion in family narratives of domestic abuse in 1970s East Kilbride

Abstract

This paper sets out a research agenda for oral history in/and geography, with a particular focus on emotional historical geographies. With three families' relocation from inner‐city Glasgow to the new town of East Kilbride as the empirical backdrop, I argue that oral history methodology is uniquely well placed to capture both the emotionality and spatiality of historical narratives. Whilst previous reviews across geography and oral history theory have considered important emotional markers such as tone of voice, the expression of feeling and body language, I intervene by focusing on different narrative strategies employed throughout the interview and argue that the geographical remit of an interviewee's memories is inseparable from their emotional brevity. The focus of the paper is therefore threefold. Firstly, I consider the subjective temporalities and spatialities that oral history narrators employ when seeking composure, considering how they might “re‐place” their narratives (and thus themselves) in the interview setting. Secondly, I argue that how interviewees might “re‐place” themselves is inextricable, and as such so is any emotional reading of the interview, from the inter‐subjective relationship produced by such an encounter. Finally, I explore the implications of this methodology for carefully elaborating on the intersection between the intimate geographies of the home, and geographies of violence. How the interviewees witnessed domestic abuse among their families was moulded by the context of their relocation. Moreover, the inter‐subjective relationship, an analysis of which I argue is crucial to the findings of the paper, was also distinctly moulded by that same family context – as I was conducting these interviews with members of my own family.

Oral Histories and Futures: Researching crises across the life‐course and the life‐course of crises

“…The future-what may come, what a person imagines, hopes or dreams about-is not the main focus of Oral History interviewing. Nevertheless, as Cave explains (2014, p. 3), the purpose of Oral History is to document 'emotional perspectives', to understand how an interviewee's imagination 'frames' their thoughts (Hampton, 2022). Oral Historians have long argued that imagination is part of how the past is told, understood and contextualised in hindsight (Portelli, 1988).…”

“…This is particularly pertinent for researching crises, where ideas of the future can diverge dramatically from reality. Additionally, because of a general reliance on past and present experiences in Oral Histories (Hampton, 2022), these future-in-retrospect reflections are rarely captured (Hall, 2023b).…”

“…That the influence of Oral History on an OHF approach was not immediately drawn from engaging with geographical scholarship is noteworthy, and it is possible to speculate on why this might be. As Riley and Harvey observed over a decade ago, ‘there has been relatively little overt cross‐pollination between Oral History and geography’ (Riley & Harvey, 2007, p. 345), and this statement remains largely relevant today (Hampton, 2022). Oral History is not a commonly applied, go‐to methodology either within geographical academic research or teaching, and it is claimed that ‘robust engagement with Oral History is limited’, cursory and superficial (Andrews et al., 2006, Scott, 2019, p. 1099).…”

“…Oral History is not a commonly applied, go‐to methodology either within geographical academic research or teaching, and it is claimed that ‘robust engagement with Oral History is limited’, cursory and superficial (Andrews et al., 2006, Scott, 2019, p. 1099). Notwithstanding some geographers have adopted, deployed and developed Oral History methods in fascinating ways, spanning topics from older people's local place‐making (Andrews et al., 2006), to rural Black community‐building (Scott, 2019), to gendered family Oral Histories (Hampton, 2022).…”

2022 winner

“…Rosie Hampton (University of Glasgow) for ‘Towards an agenda for oral history and geography: (Re)locating emotion in family narratives of domestic abuse in 1970s East Kilbride’ ( Area 2022, 54, pp. 468–475).

This is a deeply personal piece framed within a broader and ambitious discussion of emotional oral histories.

…”