About

Persistent pain affects more than 30% of people worldwide and is a burden to individuals, their families and local economies. Awareness of the condition has often been dominated by interview data where researchers narrate the experiences of others and disseminate their findings within academic communities. The Posthuman Walking Project (PWP) will redefine this approach as walkers will partner with academics to document the relationship between different environments and the experience of pain whilst walking. These meaningful walks will illuminate how different cultural and socioeconomic communities become entangled with place, climate and purpose whilst walking for work or leisure. For example, walking in high humidity rural environments or bustling urban markets in the Philippines; exploring high density urban environments and coastal sites in the UK; walking through snow in Canada or sun in New Zealand; or walking in 24-hour darkness or light in northern Norway.

Five partner universities in Canada, New Zealand, Norway, The Philippines and the UK, are working with up to two walker-partners who are central to the research process across, and beyond, the project’s initial year. Walker profiles will include varied cultural and socioeconomic profiles and pain experiences and some have chosen to use pseudonyms.