A legal walk of Sheffield: foregrounding the everyday presence of law in the city
Journal of Place Management and Development
ISSN: 1753-8335
Article publication date: 13 May 2024
Issue publication date: 15 May 2024
Abstract
Purpose
This account becomes both a theoretical and a methodological exploration of walking with the law; as such the purpose of the paper is to demonstrate how we migh walk in order to attend to how the law makes the built environment possible, how it shapes and creates places to be lived in, visited and experienced and how the law manifests in human encounters and interactions in the everyday life of the city.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, the authors combine a walking narrative approach with an open-ended interview to raise awareness of the law’s hidden presence in the urban environment. The authors explore the city of Sheffield, in Yorkshire, in the North of England, to learn about its past, regeneration and future development by combining the appreciation of the built environment, as experienced by the senses and movement, with a guided tour.
Findings
This study highlights the interconnectivity of law and place both objectively and subjectively: the authors discuss sensorial experiences of law, and also elaborate on the normativity of law, as manifested in the regulation and the making of urban places in Sheffield.
Originality/value
The originality lies in the combination of methods used to appreciate the manifestation of law in the built environment, comprising interview, autoethnographic elements and walking (multisensory experience).
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Jenny and Kay would like to thank Luke Bennett for his generosity in hosting our guided walk through Sheffield and for the stimulating legal geographic discussion that emerged from the walk.
Citation
Kanellopoulou, E.(J)., Lalor, K. and Bennett, L. (2024), "A legal walk of Sheffield: foregrounding the everyday presence of law in the city", Journal of Place Management and Development, Vol. 17 No. 2, pp. 159-170. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPMD-03-2024-0023
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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