Thinking relationally about built environments and walkability: A study of adult walking behavior in Waterloo, Ontario

The majority of research on built form and walking has been approached from a deterministic perspective and does not address the theoretical underpinnings of individual walking behaviour. This paper interrogates the relationship between individual walkers and their local environment in order to illuminate how and why people walk through/with space. Specifically, the paper reports on findings from 20 adult participants in Waterloo, Canada who took part in a participatory walking interview accompanied by a member of the research team. A relational interpretation of the data revealed that the relationship between built form and walking extends beyond the correlates of residential density, mix of land uses and street networks. Our findings reveal that there are blurred boundaries between utilitarian and recreational walking behavior, and that walking decisions were influenced by desires to avoid discomfort, seek pleasure, foster social connection and more-than-human encounters. We conclude with the argument that a relational perspective better captures the dynamics between people and place, and ultimately guides practitioners to design built environments that accommodate the realities of human activity in general and walking behavior in particular.