This paper aims to meet the desire for dynamic and multi-dimensional aspects of studying feelings attached to places. Starting with a contemporary example of a place in crisis and whose affective history seems linked to the 1984-85 UK miners' strike, this paper argues for methodologies that avoid drawing straight lines from feelings attached to the past into the present-day. Rather than following dominant emotions, this work pursues Kathleen Stewart's approach to ordinary affects: feelings that start and end in social worlds, but which are equally personal and intimate. A case study from Wales, UK, uses the creative mediums of walking tours and site-specific performances to bring the public into the research, which in turn helps to interpret feelings of the past revealed from 13 interviews focused on older people. This writing considers future methodological developments, such as focusing on younger people, encouraging local stakeholders as co-producers, and deepening artist collaborations.

This paper studies urban public space as part of NHS mental health interventions supporting individuals to recover from early psychosis. Whilst the published literature notes the benefits of group walking to address difficulties such as social isolation, there is limited research focused on the specific qualities of city spaces themselves. This writing explores this issue through a three-year interdisciplinary collaboration that brings intuitive, innovative and evolving practice to the surface. The project involves a human geographer working as a Researcher in Residence alongside an established mental health nurse within the context and scope of quality improvement rather than clinical research. This paper builds on six evaluation interviews to analyse and reflect on two group walks in different cities. These interventions question if and how Kevin Lynch's five elements of imageability help design therapeutic walks through urban space and, in turn, reveal settings that support mental health recovery. We offer and discuss three main findings. First, mobile perspectives render vistas rather than pinpointing specific landmarks. Second, feathered edges offer gentle surprises and enhance opportunities for interaction. Finally, nodes in cities can complicate the efforts of guiding but also offer opportunities for individuals to compose their own future walks.

This article discusses the opportunities of working with an Advisory Group on intergenerational climate change research. We co-created creative workshops to explore and articulate climate change perceptions and future imaginaries between younger and older people in Wales, UK. This 12-month programme of research activities led to a bilingual (Welsh and English) and bespoke comic, and a follow-up project that co-created an intergenerational activity book. Using a research diary format, we show how to practically follow the Responsible Research and Innovation dimensions of inclusion, reflexivity, anticipation, and responsiveness during the data collection stage. The opportunities for co-creation discussed here relate to two main areas: imagining and communicating futures through intergenerational workshops; and the extent to which the Advisory Group were co-creators. The voices of four members of the Advisory Group and the work of comic book artist show the benefits of an early involvement of time, resource and trust in a group who are potential critics, advocates, and bridge-builders. We make four recommendations: the importance of time and imagination in intergenerational climate research; the value of Advisory Groups in improving participatory methods; the need for sustained community-university partnerships and that Advisory Groups should be involved from the very beginning of research.

This article investigates urban change, making films from research approaches which use ethnographic walking interviews, public walking tours and psychogeographic techniques. The case study focuses on Newport, South Wales, UK. Using this example, I explore the longer-term impacts of the (mostly) state-led reconfiguration of British towns and cities from the late-1950s to the mid-1970s. Contemporary film for this period sets the context and links to Guy Debord's concept of psychogeography, psychogeography in film, and associated walking techniques. This article builds a methodology from these principles, where one-to-one participant-led walking interviews - both outdoor and using online maps - reacquaint people over aged 55 with earlier periods of their biographies. These approaches reveal deeply-held memories and articulate feelings relevant to the present and future. This article develops and analyses practice, offering ways to film walking tours to sensitivity present and explore place narratives over time: firstly, working with community activists to reveal the politics of local housing; and secondly, a commission with a theatre company where three artists follow a specific walking route which explores urban change and rights to the city. As towns and cities face challenges these approaches offer visual methods to engage the public in place making.

The places where people live, work and spend leisure time are essential to their health and wellbeing. However, with climate change, these environments are changing. It is paramount that we understand older and younger people’s climate change perspectives, behaviours and visions for the future so that the places that matter to them can be shaped and managed effectively for health, wellbeing and sustainability. This article presents the case for using comic books to explore climate change with diverse intergenerational groups. The bilingual (Welsh/English) Climate Comic was created in South Wales, UK, as part of the ‘Understanding Older and Younger People’s PerspecTives and Imaginaries of Climate Change’ (OPTIC) project. From February to May 2023, 65 older and younger people took part in structured workshops where we used creative methods (games, collaging, comic creation, mobile and online interviews, storyboarding) to elicit intergenerational conversation, articulate intangible values and explore change. Workshops were audio-recorded, and stories were developed into a comic by illustrator Laura Sorvala. We also used comics as part of wider engagement and to stimulate ideas in a design sprint with interested groups. We discuss why comics are suited to exploring climate change with older and younger people, and the process we used to create the Climate Comic . We then reflect on the affordances and limitations of our approach and make recommendations for future research in this area. We hope that this work will stimulate others to consider using this adaptable and engaging art form for further research and engagement with younger and older people.

This article investigates the period between the late-1950s and the mid-1970s, a time when millions of people in Britain moved from towns and older industrial settlements to the urban periphery. South Wales offers a particularly interesting perspective here, as many moves were within twenty miles and seemed to be driven by high levels of state investment in industry, housing and road infrastructure. This essay aims to examine the long-term impact of these decisions on later generations and to demonstrate the determination - or will - of political actors in Wales, who are often competing with other places. As well as adapting Raymond Williams's well–known The Long Revolution for my title, I use his structure of feeling concept to seek an understanding of how change was experienced. This is achieved by presenting four recent interview accounts gathered from people who lived in South Wales in the first three decades after World War Two

In this case study of a transdisciplinary collaboration between a mental health nurse and a human geographer, we reflect on a continuing research venture to develop walking therapy as an accepted intervention in the mental health system. We draw on Gilles Delueuze and Félix Guattari's assemblage theory to frame the research practice, or journey, as something which is boundless, fluid, and constantly evolving. Specifically, we (re)visit four points where the research project is forced to change course and which reveals vulnerabilities such as feelings of powerlessness and the absence of a clear route for our knowledge to be recognised. In the present moment, this is an exercise which has helped us as authors to understand our own passage. For the future, we offer other practitioners of qualitative inquiry an approach that helps them to draw strength and find acceptance in complex and unpredictable scenarios.

The urban environment has long been recognised as a risk factor in the development of non-affective psychosis. While epidemiological studies dominate this field, the scoping review detailed in this article aimed to capture service users’ experiences and perspectives of urban environments in relation to their mental health, particularly in the context of recovery. A total of 12 participatory studies were reviewed. Analysis of the findings suggests that childhood urban upbringing may be associated with a dampened emotional reactivity response to stress and that residential instability in childhood may hasten the onset of mental health issues.As symptoms of psychosis emerged, sensory overload and perceived challenges with interpersonal interactions often fuelled service users’ avoidance of urban areas. However, green spaces and community places provided service users with opportunities for relief from symptoms and distress, and community places offered opportunities for connection with others. The authors suggest that practitioners may consider assessing the lived geographies of service users and that mental health service providers may undertake a local geographical survey to identify urban stressors and supportive resources.