It's been a while since there was an update on this page, so sorry if you have been trying to follow our progress - it's actually been quite good recently!  I've managed six interviews in the last couple of weeks and would be out now if the battery in the GPS 'bleeper' hadn't failed this morning.

After the last appeal for more women to come forward and talk to me, I've interviewed ... one!  But have arranged to speak to another in the new year.  So, the current interview situation is:

Walking interviews - 4 completed, 1 arranged

Traditional, sedentary interviews - 0 (given the choice between these and walking interviews, no-one wants to do these - well, they don't capture the imagination quite the same, do they!), but I'm hoping to arrange one soon

'Double' interviews (sedentary, then walking) - 1 completed, 2 in progress, 1 to be arranged

So, that's 9 (or possibly 10) respondents out of the hoped-for 30!  Not bad, but it does mean that there will be more of a sense of urgency when we all come back after Christmas.

Anyone hoping for a hint of the likely results will be disappointed, though.  I am currently veering between having complete confidence in the improved results that come from a walking interview and being absolutely impressed by the thoroughness of the sedentary interviewees.  In true academic style, the answer so far is - 'more work needs to be done'!!  (Never mind the PhD, it's coming up with answers like this that prove your credentials!!).  I can report, though, that so far all the interviews have been really, really different.  I have heard views from people who look at the area through artistic eyes, through having spent childhoods and teenage years there and through having worked with disadvantaged people.  Many stories have had happy associations, a few have highlighted how the area has been/ can be a place of fear - sometimes it's difficult to imagine the infinite variety of meanings that a place has!  This is perhaps not very surprising, but certainly makes 'data gathering' (doesn't that sound a poor turn of phrase, given the rich variety of stories I have actually been recording!) an absolute pleasure.  Analysis may well be another matter, but I am really looking forward to getting the corrected transcripts back in order to see what is really going on, rather than replying on my (fading) impressions of the interviews.

On the technology side, everything has acted up at some point, but has mostly been well-behaved (especially when switched on, charged up, etc).  As the maps on the interview pages show, the GPS signal has been a bit inaccurate.  It gives the impression of us walking straight through (or maybe over!) buildings and magically jumping from street to street, especially in the northern corner of Digbeth.  Maybe it's something to do with the power of the Bullring, atmospherics in outer space, or a lack of power left in the GPS unit.  We'll see on the next walk....