Contribution of Geographical Research Methods to the Study of Gender Relations

Geographical research methods have been increasingly used in social sciences due to the interest in how social behaviour and space are mutually constructed. However, there is still a limited number of studies dealing with the application of such methods, the variety of produced data, and field experiences. In this paper, I reflect on fieldwork experiences of my doctoral research, which investigated how gender and class dynamics shape women’s experiences of leisure at the neighbourhood level. During the eight-month fieldwork between 2014-2015, I used the methods of the walk and talk interviews, focus groups with mapping exercises and participant observation in leisure spaces of two differently-classed neighbourhoods in Bursa, Turkey. These methods provide participants with new possibilities of expression, beyond verbal communication capacities, allowing researchers to think about questions that may not necessarily arise in traditional sit-in interviews. Therefore, this article concludes by suggesting that geographical methods can mirror the multilayered and complex nature of gendered social relations