[matilda] 'A Study of Stanton Moor': A call for research participants.

[Benjamin Major]

Hello. First, a question: does anyone know if there are still folk living on the Stanon Moor protest site in the Peak District?
 
I would be very grateful if you could read and circulate the following e-mail. In particular I am trying to get in contact with people who have lived on the Stanton Moor protest site, or at least know it quite well.
 
I am currently studying for an MA in Social and Cultural Geography at the University of Sheffield and am undertaking research for my dissertation. I am currently searching for research participants.
 
The title of the research is ‘Protest, place and the ethics of care and empathy: A study of Stanton Moor’. I attach a copy of the research proposal though the information is broadly summarized below.
 
Very broadly speaking, my research interests revolve around a study of landscape that focuses upon the relations between people and their environment. I am interested in how landscape is animated by various human-nonhuman interactions and how this manifests itself in practices of 'caring' for particular places. Further, I am also interested in thinking about how ethical geographies might be reframed to admit the non-human into their sphere.
 
Specifically, the site of my research in this dissertation is that of Stanton Moor, a site that has been the scene of much contestation and controversy in the past decade. Although my central focus is on the unfolding relations, conflicts and alliances between protestors, conservationists and the quarrying company that emerged during this period of dispute, I wish to frame this against a broader geography and history of the site that recognises it as a place marked by the various practices of human communities and a place that has called people to gather within it in many varieties of ways throughout history. 
 
To move on now to my methodology. I intend to undertake a series of walks around the site in the company of protestors, archaeologists, hikers, rangers, local residents and others who have had a connection to the moor during its recent turbulent history. This methodology is chosen over the conventional interview chiefly in the belief that using such a technique of ‘talking whist walking’ will be effective in elucidating self-world relations and in unearthing spontaneous, emotive responses to place that could not be achieved in the static, enclosed environment of the traditional interview.
 
These walks, or ‘ambulatory conversations’ as they are referred to in the research, should take between one and two hours each. I plan to undertake this research during March and April if possible. All travel costs to and from the site will be reimbursed. It is my hope that you will be able to circulate this e-mail to friends in order for me to find willing participants who have strong connections with Stanton Moor. All participants will be fully informed about the research beforehand, be asked to sign a consent form and will be given the right to remain anonymous in the final paper if they wish so. This project is currently being reviewed by the university ethics committee and I foresee no reasons why it will not meet the required standards.
 
I thank you very much for your time. Please feel free to respond to this e-mail if you are interested in participating or with any queries you may have about the research.
 
Yours Sincerely,
 
Benjamin Major
MA student in Social and Cultural Geography
e-mail: ggp06bjm at shef.ac.uk
Department of Geography
University of Sheffield
Sheffield
S10 2TN 
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