Psychogeographical counter-tour guiding: Theory and practice

In this paper, will be outlined and explained a mode of tour guiding referred to as ‘psychogeographical’ counter-tour guiding that has been conducted in Manchester, Huddersfield and Leeds with groups such as the Huddersfield Psychogeography Network, the Loiterers Resistance Movement and the Leeds Psychogeography Group. The usage of psychogeography here draws on elements of the situationist practice of playful wandering without destination in order to: experientially make sense of and creatively engage in group dialogue about the changing form of towns and cities and to creatively consider what sort of societies we would really like. In doing this type of counter-tour guiding, it will be explained how the author’s methodological approach to this work is conceptualised as a psychogeographer, counter-tour guider and as a critical psychologist drawing on situationism and reflexivity theories. Connection will also be drawn with other individual and groups doing similar adventures and journeys such as Walk Walk Walk, Wrights and Sites and also the Manchester Area Psychogeographic. Key analytical data and conclusions to the work will also be discussed

Psychogeography and Ground Zero

In this paper I want to discuss a psychogeographical project conducted at the main site of the horrific and monstrous September 11th 2001 attacks in New York, U.S.A. I will explain how I made sense of and reflected on my experiences of being at that site as well as conceptualising how I drew on the situationist practice of psychogeographical walking. I will explain how I drew on the work of the situationists and why their ideas of detournement, spectacle and psychogeography are important. In terms of my experience in being at the site of the attacks, I will also discuss core themes of my research including trauma and violence and the limits of words to explain experience. In recent years in my research, I have connected and considered this work in relation to the current memorialization of the Ground Zero site, to current political events (i.e. the ongoing war on ‘terrorism’, the banking crisis, Occupy, and more recently with the Charlie Hebdo events) and in relation to considering how my research in psychology should connect with political practice and social change

Psychogeography and Ground Zero

In this chapter I want to discuss a psychogeographical project conducted at the main site of the horrific and monstrous September 11th 2001 attacks in New York, U.S.A. I will explain how I drew on the situationist practice of psychogeographical walking and why the ideas of detournement, spectacle and psychogeography are important. In recent years in my research, I have connected and considered this work in relation to the current memorialization of the Ground Zero site, to current political events (i.e. the on-going war on ‘terrorism’, the banking crisis, Occupy, and more recently the Charlie Hebdo events) as well as in relation to the question of how my research in psychology should connect with political practice and social change

Walking the radical talk

The majority of the general public and indeed many psychologists would probably not associate walking and getting lost as ‘research’. However, many artists, poets, activists and more recently academics in disciplines such as psychology, geography and architecture have used the practice of what is called ‘psychogeographical walking’ to reflectively and politically make sense of our relations to environments as well as to consider what future non-capitalist towns and cities could look like. Some readers may be familiar with the following work by: Engels (1845) and his accounts of the poverty encountered by the working classes in cities such as Manchester and London; Chtcheglov’s (1958) reflections on Paris and how working class districts were effectively dismantled to make way for shopping arcades in the late 1950s and de Quincey’s (1822) writings about his walks around Paris and London in an opium haze. Such work has informed and inspired the types of readings of environments conducted by psychogeographers both past and present. In more recent years in television programmes such as The Perfect Home presented by architectural theorist Alain de Botton and Grand Designs presented by Kevin McCloud we are encouraged to think about how built environments make us feel and to consider what ideal living spaces could look like. Whilst such programmes are useful to get audiences to consider the emotional effects of environments and to provide ideas for how our living and working environments can be changed, such attempts for change stop at the point of only getting us to consider immediate physical changes rather than considering alternatives to the capitalist order of things. This indeed is a point raised by various environmental psychologists such as Uzzell and Räthzel (2009), that I argue needs to be considered seriously in considering the implications of the types of psychological knowledge that we produce and what such knowledge manages to change in the discipline and also in society

You don't know what's around the corner: A qualitative study of professional footballers in England facing career-transition

Career transition in sport is a rapidly growing area within the field of sport psychology. Interest in this area has been fuelled by the need for an increased number of professional athletes seeking support and assistance during transition from sport. However, whilst research in this field has focused in on a wide range of sports, specific research on retirement in professional football has been limited. Because of this it is argued that current research may fail to consider specific issues associated with the transition from professional football. Therefore, in an attempt to add to the existing body of research the current study aimed to provide an in-depth insight into how professional footballers understand their ‘lived-world’ during exit from their sport. A total of eight former professional footballers, who were at the time experiencing the possibility of career-transition, were interviewed in two separate focus group discussions. The interviews were analysed using interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA). The key findings from the research show that a lack of control over their lives, lack of pre-planning and preparation for retirement as well as support and ability to seek it led professional footballers to experience heightened levels of anxiety, uncertainty and fear for their futures as well as an unexpected sense of rejection during career transition. These findings have implications for support organisations and those interested in the life-long welfare of professional footballers. It is proposed that an emphasis on pre-planning and preparation, provisions of support and encouraging help-seeking may aid professional footballers during the process out of their sport