Paper short abstract:

This paper explores walking as a shared activity between migrant women and ethnographers. Based on multi-site ethnography from Abidjan to Marseille via Tunis, it examines how walking shapes spatial and sensory experiences and serves as both a strategy for crossing borders and a reflexive method.

Paper long abstract:

Globalised, interconnected, and cosmopolitan cities are navigated daily by diverse publics, including migrants and ethnographers who observe their movements. But what happens when these two groups meet—not in a café, home, or office—while walking together, wandering the streets and neighbourhoods, or simply hanging out? Walking, both a physical and social activity reshapes space and offers a way of engaging with and understanding the world. It provides the opportunity to explore the city, observe its practices, landscapes, and actors, and experience the lived reality of urban life. Drawing on multi-site ethnography conducted across various urban terrains—from Abidjan to Marseille via Tunis—this article explores the sensory, spatial, and emotional dimensions of walking as a shared activity between migrants and ethnographers. The first part examines how walking functions in the lives of Ivoirian migrant women, especially in spaces shaped by power dynamics, and how it serves as a strategy for crossing and defying borders. The second part focuses on walking as a meaningful activity for the ethnographer, placing them in a reflexive and material interaction with the world they are studying.