We believe that inclusive cities, open to celebrate diversity, are the most vibrant ones. Thus, we value the role of immigrants in bringing this cultural mix to the urban environment.
E M P A T H Y W A L K S 1. MHTETEA
Empathy Walks (EW) is about celebrating the multiple colours and layers brought by a social mix within cities, and explores how this occurs throughout the simple act of walking.
PRAMANIKDEBANILMARIAERNANNYLETICIASABINO BA BasedFrom:MScBusinessUDCPRiodeJaneiroin:RiodeJaneiroFrom:SãoPauloBasedin:SãoPauloBAGeographyMScUDCPFrom:MumbaiBasedin:MumbaiBAArchitectureMScUDCP A B R O A D CROSOSOFIAMAZZUCOJULIEPLICHONSONIABARALIC From: Belgrade Based in: London From: São Paulo Based in: Cambridge BA BABasedFrom:BAMScGeographyUDCPArchitectureMScUDCPBordeauxin:LondonPoliticalSciencesMScUDCP U K & E U R O P E
We are a multidisciplinary team who met during our MSc in Urban Design and City Planning at the Bartlett School of Planning, UCL, united by a passion for the social dimension of cities.
E M P A T H Y Empathy is a relatively new term in English and other latin languages, the first time it appeared in English was in1909, created by Edward Tichner to translate the term “einfühlung” in Germany which means “feeling into”. For the English word the roots are from ancient Greek: EMPATHY TIMELINE EM - in; PATH - feeling; Y First used 108 years ago 1909 visualinto”.UseEinfühlungmeans“feelingofartsinpsychology 1917 processesCognitive other’sUnderstanding:feelingsbetter 1934 Role taking peopleunderstandtobetter 1980 Heinz Kohutas(American)Empathybasisforallhumaninteraction 1997 Barret-Lennard-(American)Empathyconnectspeople 2008 acknowledgesObama“Empathy deficit” 2014 Socialrevolutionrelation EMPATHY CONDITIONS Cognitive objective understandingroletaking Affective visceral feelings ; reactivity to others “take role of other person to (Hebertunderstand”Muad, 1934; Piaget, 1932) “...feeling ourselves into them” (Titchner, 1924) PROCESS “is the experience of foreign conciouness” (Stein,1917) EMPATHY WALKS
Empathy is always towards other people. Empathy is to be aware of the presence of other, perceive the other, care with the other without judging and with respect. Being able to build momentaneous bridges between strangers with no expectatives.other It can also be defined as a careful awaraness about otherness, and a great trigger is identification. “ “ Empathy forms the very basis of all interactionhuman(Kolhut,1980)OUTCOME“Affective response more appropriate to another’s situation” (Hoffman, 1987)
EMPATHY REQUIREMENTS
S T E P 6
Document walk, organise the walk, record, photodocument and write about it to encourage wider interaction
M E T H O D O L O G Y
discuss
S T E P 1
Invite walk leader, in collaboration with organisations and community groups
Create
S T E P 3 event, publicise it on S T E P 4
all platformspossible
S T E P 2
Create route, and finalise a route with the walk leader
Interview walk leader, to understand how they find ways of belonging to the city and access its services
Dissemination of knowledge, share all that we learn from the walk with others in public exhibitions and other events
S T E P 5
Empathy Walks acknowlegdes this as an empowerment process, while connecting different networks of people and opportunities.
Empathy Walks perspective on city makers, and intention to celebrate diversity within the city.
W A L K L E A D E R S ONBEIGSUGHT
How could walk leaders benefit from this action? Empathy Walks aims to connect walk leaders to organisations and individuals that will contribute to making life in the city even more pleasant, for the walk leaders and everyone.
4.
Walk leaders are diverse citizens whose daily paths shape the city. They come from different walks of life. Through Empathy Walks we aim to gather and disseminate their unique perspectives.This is why we are particularly interest in immigrants.
Walk leaders will also benefit from the walks by having their perspectives on the city known by many, which will consider them in the process of city making.
Anyone could lead a walk, as long as willing to share a bit of their lives with the Empathy Walks team and the people joining the walk.
O U T R E A C H M E T H O D O L O G Y N E T W O R K S P L A N N I N G M A P P I N G T R A I N I N GC O M M U N I T I E S O R G A N I S A T I O N S Jan /MonicaSuzanneJaneSaskiaGehlSassenJacobsHallDegenRoyalCollege of Arts / University College London / Arts and Humanity /Research Council / Academy of Urbanism / ... we are always open / public space / sociology / walkability / ethnography / senses / Community outreach / Co-design + Co-planning / Qualitative data / Giving a voice / Just maps / Living Maps / Training officers and councillors on EW ///methodologyEnrichingconsultationsInspiringstudentsOnlineopenplatform / Just Space / Reclaim Our Spaces / Civic Wise / Impact Hubs / Time Banks / Museum of Walking / Indoamerican Refugee and Migrant Organisation / London Migrants Network / ... we are always open / Pembroke House C O L L A B O R A T I O N W A L K A F T E R - W A L KP R E - W A L K C O N N E C T P R O D U C E D I S S E M I N A T E - Produce empathy data - Develop online platform + Use data for action with public bodies and policy makers - Exhibition - Connecting with organisations and people - Connect the unbound points rather than filling a gap - Mapping what’s already there - Video and audio recording - Mental mapping - Maps produced out of the walks + Applying for further funding and grants W A L K L E A D E R S E M P A T H Y W A L K S O R G A N I S A T I O N CS O M M U N I T Y G R O U P AS C A D E M I A P O L I C Y M A K I N G & P L A N N I N G T I M E S C A L E . Long Term .. Spring 2017 Onwards .. Now .
The first walk took place on the 4th of March 2017. Through the walk, participants discovered new perspectives on a route led from Elephant & Castle to Old Kent Road. Community organisations and social entreprise projects were described by the walk leaders. The walk leaders on this occasion were: Tim Whelan, Fausto Llopis, Ulrike Steven and Nicholas Okwulu.
T H E 1ST W A L K
Map of the first Empathy Walk, which allowed participants to walk the city through different walk leaders’ shoes.
OLDBERMONDSEYKENTROAD 6. OOAESTLNDN
WALWORTH ELEPHANT & CASTLE
CRITICAL THINKINGIsEmpathy
Empathy Walks is an open source project, so people can use it, communities can use it. It can also serve to train local authorities to do consultation, and to show that people in different communities are actually engaged and involved in making the city.
Is it more about a new relationship to the city ?
story-telling./Youcould
You should also think of how this walk can be a cultural exchange,for instance with music, food, doing an activity together.
QUESTIONS
/ It’s very important to brief people about what you want to get out of the project, because it’s very easy to get off the road. To what extent do you want to curate the walk? It probably needs to be guided.
/ If we are talking about empowerement, walk leaders will not feel empowered if they sort of give themselves away, and that’s it? The idea that the walk has some kind of exchange is very important. It has to be a two-way thing. You can do that by creating this platform where people really get to know each other and break barriers.
/ Many people are in a situation of transit here in London, but actually we are all making the city, we are not just its consumers - we have to be clear about that, because people ignore the value they bring. In that sense, the project is psychological too! It’s about self-esteem. We are working at the psycho-spatial level.
Maybe EW can be more focused around stories; the experience people have, and maybe people would realise that they know more about the place than they thought they did.
CONCERNS
R O U N D T A B L EMONITORING
/ I don’t like it when I read in London only about the pure economic contribution people make, how much they consume, how much they produce. There are other more subtil elements, like the social networks, the quantity of languages, of cultural events and I feel that if we only talk about productivity, how useful people are to the city because they produce, even if you are low skilled, it loses some kind of richness - an individual is not just a machine!
/ As part of my cycling project we do walkabouts, specifically about looking at the environment. It can be quite difficult for people to articulate what you are saying, that’s why that recording is very important. But then, how do you propose to do this in a non obstrusive way? People may react indifferent ways when recorded.
/ If you collect the material, it would be nice that people can “walk again”digitally, experience again or for thefirst time the walk online. It’s so nice the idea that you can walk with an itinerary.
We want to build the walk bit by bit with thewalk leaders. The mapping and the first more intimate walk will help reveal and guide the conversation and the storytelling.
“There is something incredibly powerful about sharing personal stories. You feel inspired.“
make people tip at the end of the tour to pay the walk leader, I would not think people would just walk away. At the same time, charging in advance ensures your participants will show up. Could go both ways.
4TH M A R C H 2 0 1 7 @ T H E A C A D E M Y O F U R B A N I S M / S E L E C T E D P I E C E S
Why is the contribution of maintainers of the city often overlooked?
/ I quite like the idea of prototyping the walk, so as people can see what’s actually going to happen. Maybe do it with a small group of people first to empower the walk leader, so to keep it more intimate. Then, gradually introduce new people.
To define immigrants we looked at all different layers covered by the notion. EW is particularly interested in maintainers that make the city function.
/ Keep it open about hearing people’s voices, and then you could target those that are informally more invisible. You could stigmatise even more by openly targetting people that would be identified as “invisible” or “deprived”.
One of our key challenges is the monitoring and what kind of advantages a walk leader would have from the walk: financial incentive, recording and shared
/ There are many interesting things you can do with photography. I wonder if that’s something people could do beforehand? Mapping out where to go can be a pressure, quite stressful. In a project I started they gave everyone disposable cameras for a sort of daily diary, that allowed to understand what people are naturally focused on - and then go from there rather than necessarilly from “ok now show us your space”...do you know what I mean?
/ When you talk to the people it is crucial that you don’t put a label on them. Even though we think their contribution is not reflected, they may not see themselves like that. They may have a different opinion, so it might be important to see how they feel first instead of labelling.
FEATURING / Maia Tarling-Hunter - Sustrans // Bright Pryde - the Academy of Urbanism // Isabella Luger - Architect Maria Zouroudi - Young Urbanist // Yigong Zhang - Perkinswill // Barbara Romanin Jacur - Soundings // Vita Khosti / Sofia Croso Mazzuco / Julie Plichon - Empathy Walks
Who would come to the walks?
Walks are documentedusuallywith film, audio record, photographs and writing.
/ I think that one of the main problems in London is that it’s a very itinerant city, and people move to London for an uncertain period of time. There is a feeling of never being part of the city, therefore never feeling the duty or right to contribute. In many ways I am invisible. I am not part at the moment of any social network... So when we talk about invisibilisation are we referring to people that have very low-skilled jobs? Or people who are not socially or politically represented in their neighbourhood?
/ There’s something about stages on how you ask people. It’s quite ambitious to ask people who don’t necesarilly live in an area and go there for work, to lead a walk and come up to talk to a big group of people. Whether that can be done I don’t know. It’s also a question of where you start the walk. Many people might feel safer in their community than in the area where they commute to work. People would live in the suburbs, come in just for the job and leave, and feel a bit out of breath in the city. So you may want to look atstages where not much is being asked from people.
PRACTICALITY / THE ‘HOW’ ?
Walks something designed to include people in the more formal planning process,or does it have a double hat to reveal social networks?
You may want to avoid “tracking” people with very precise mapping. Beware of privacy issues when you map people’s daily walkabouts.
ADVICE
R O U N D T A B L E
How would you use the data produced by the walks?
We don’t want these walks to be touristic. We want participants to be active in their discoveries and interactions.
