Soledad Martinez Rodriguez
Contact
soledad.martinez.13@ucl.ac.ukPhD Candidate
Primary Supervisor: Dr Andrew Harris
Second Supervisor: Dr Filipa Wunderlich
Funding: Becas Chile Scholarship, Chilean Government
Research
Walking is a practice performed daily in cities. Even when walking is the most basic way of human movement, it is not the same experience for everyone. Walking can mean different things, can entail different affects and diverse materialities can take part of it. Walking is either enjoyed or suffered. The overall interest of my research is to provide an understanding of everyday walking practices in Santiago de Chile putting special attention on their differences, making use of a qualitative and ethnographic methodology. Walking has been explored by great diversity of disciplines. Particularly urban walking has usually been considered by transport, planning or urban design perspectives as an evident way of movement: to walk is to put one foot in front of the other. Therefore, these perspectives are focused on measure and model functional aspects such us frequency, accessibility, distances, etc. In contrast, my research considers walking from a more holistic perspective that conceives walking as more than a physical activity: I understand walking as a social practice that is not neutral. By answering how different is the experience of walking in Santiago and how are different ‘everydays’ produced from walking, I want to explore the relationship between urban inequality and everyday walking practices.
Education
2007-2009 Universitat de Barcelona
Master Degree in Territorial Planning and Environmental Management.
Thesis title: Caminar la ciudad: pasos dirigidos, pasos distraídos / Walking the City: Directed Paces, Distracted Paces
2007 Universidad de Chile
Professional Title in Social Anthropology
Thesis title: El gesto develado, hechuras de espacio. El transeúnte y el uso del espacio público como espacio de detención / The Revealed Gesture, Making Spaces. Passers-by and the Use of Public Space as Stopping Space
2001-2005 Universidad de Chile
Bachelor in Anthropology (with maximum distinction); mention in Social Anthropology
Publications
Publications and Presentations
Martínez Rodríguez, S. (2015) Andar a pata no más (¡ni menos!), in La Revolución Peatonal. Ciudad de México: El Caminante.
Martínez, S. (2010) La ciudad percibida: cuestiones metodológicas en la investigación de ambientes sonoros urbanos, in Revista Iluminuras, vol 11 (25), 1-16.
Martínez, S. (2007) La quema del Judas, in Quiroz, D. Etnografías Mínimas. Santiago de Chile: Andros.
Papers Presented
2016. Exploring Everyday Walking. ‘Space in Mind’ Symposium, Bethlem Gallery. Beckenham. September, 22nd
2015. Making the City with Foot: Ethnography of Walking as a Social Practice. Conference. School of Design, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Santiago. September, 9th
2015. May I Walk with You? Exploring Everyday Walking Practices in Santiago de Chile. Turin and elsewhere. Cross-disciplinary debates on urban transformations and dynamics. Turin. June, 4-6.
2015. Walking the walk through ‘interview workshops’. Annual Conference of the Canadian Anthropologie Society. Quebec. May,13-16.
2012. Learning to Love Ethnography (Experimenting Ethnography as Workshop), in collaboration with Inés Figueroa. III Latin-American Anthropology Association (ALA) Conference. S40 Spaces, Subjectivities and Urban Research Methodologies. Santiago, Chile, November.
Book Reviews
Martínez, S. (2013). Book review: Doreen Massey. Un sentido global de lugar by Benach, N. and Albet, A. Biblio 3W, vol XVIII (1023).