Using walkshops as a collaborative method in interdisciplinary research

In this article, we analyse the use of ‘walkshops’ as a collaborative method for interdisciplinary research collaboration in the field of pollution. Walkshops are mobile conversations, usually undertaken outdoors with small groups of people, that engage with landscapes as stimuli for discussion. While walking methods are well-established for data collection, pedagogic practice and public engagement, there is comparatively little attention paid to their use as collaborative and network-building methods in interdisciplinary research. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 13 UK academics who attended two walkshops focused on pollution, we demonstrate how this method can be employed to bring together researchers from disparate disciplinary areas around a shared topic. We specifically argue that walkshops ‘suspend’ three key structures of everyday academic life – spatiotemporality, disciplinarity and hierarchically-mediated interactions – creating a liminal void in which new modes of thinking and working can emerge.