We have been working with the University of Sheffield to disseminate a Toolkit on Collective Walking/Movement and Neighbourhood Exploration. The toolkit was born out of the “Crossing the Frontier” project (see below) in Rotherham and focuses on using shared movement as a way to bridge social divides and facilitate dialogue between the community and local stakeholders. It was co-developed by researchers from the University of Sheffield, local organisations, including Steel City Community Consultancy, and Rotherham West residents. 

The Toolkit is designed to help researchers, community groups, and stakeholders use ‘neighbourhood exploration’ – walking and sharing emotional connections with a place – alongside creative activities to understand social dynamics, identify local priorities, foster social mixing, and bring communities together.

You can access the full report about how the Toolkit was designed and the downloadable toolkit via the ORDA University of Sheffield repository.

If you want to collaborate with us, apply the Toolkit and receive training, exchange knowledge about a similar approach to walking, or if you simply want to find out more, please email Dr Aneta Piekut – a.piekut [a] sheffield.ac.uk

The Toolkit has been developed applying learning from international comparative project “Life at the Frontier: The Impact of Social Frontiers on the Social Mobility and Integration of Migrants” (Nordforsk/ESRC, 2020-23; PI Prof. Gwilym Pryce, Piekut Co-Director), and a follow-up participatory research project “Crossing the Frontier: Exploring the potential of the Collective Mobile Method as a participatory research tool in Rotherham” (UKRI Research England, 2024, Co-Led by Piekut and Dr Henry Staples).

Visual design of report by Uzma Rani.