Dog team walking: inter-corporeal identities,blindness and reciprocal guiding |
| |
Authors: | Stevenson Andrew |
| |
Affiliation: | Department of Psychology, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK |
| |
Abstract: | As part of a broader sensory ethnographic exploration of place perception amongst international students who have recently arrived in Manchester (England), I conducted walking interviews with Abbie, who is from Barcelona and has a visual impairment. My work with Abbie and her dog-guide, Labrador Toni, offered me the opportunity to explore the development of emplaced knowledge as embodied, multi-sensory practice. As we walked as a three-in-one corporeal entity we operated as an inter-subjective being, challenging individualizing constructions of the self. During our interviews the importance of inter-corporeal space, the spaces between us, in facilitating our abilities to guide and follow each other was realized. For me as a researcher, this collaboration also afforded a re-prioritization of sensory awareness that feeds into a critique of ocular-centric approaches to research. |
| |
Keywords: | inter-corporeal visually impaired sensory ethnography inter-subjectivities dogs |
|
|