ABSTRACT
In one sense, it may seem strange to have an introduction to walking. After all, walks are something that almost every able-bodied person is able to experience, and every journey begins and ends with a walk. However, like many taken-for-granted everyday experiences, there are (sometimes unseen) influences and factors that affect how, where and why we do what we do, many of which we are unaware of until they are pointed out to us. So it is with the present volume, in which we bring together a range of perspectives on the histories, cultures, psychology, geography and planning of walking. The range of academic approaches is no accident; walking is an inherently cross-disciplinary topic, it
trespasses through everybody else’s field . . . and doesn’t stop in any of them on its long route . . . If a field of expertise can be imagined as a real field . . . yielding a specific crop – then the subject of walking resembles walking itself in its lack of confines.
(Solnit 2000: 4) The purpose of the volume is therefore to highlight current research approaches, encourage further conversation between different fields on the subject of walking and contribute to walking as an important area of study in its own right.