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Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the application of walking-interviews and audio-visual recording glasses to give insight into people's relationships with everyday heritage using the historic urban landscape of central Reykjavík as primary case.

Paper long abstract:

A historical urban landscape is not just an aggregation of old buildings, for residents it is material manifestation of memories and meanings which connect individuals to place and society. In research on place-attachment, it has been shown that active connections with the environment have value for the well-being and social functioning of individuals. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that people's place-attachment cannot be fully explained on the grounds of representational value. Affect and emotions, with the processing of experiences and memories, play a key role in the formation of people's connection to places.

In recent years, there has been an upsurge in considering emotions and affective factors in analysing people's relationship to cultural heritage. In an ongoing study, qualitative methods are developed on this basis to gain a holistic understanding and insight into people's relationship with places and everyday heritage. This paper examines how two methodologies, walking-interviews and sensory research methodology involving the use of audio-visual recording glasses, differ and complement each other to shed a light on people's place-attachment and how residents form a multifaceted relationship with the urban landscape. The potentials and limitations of the sensory research methodologies are considered, exploring how they can be used to provide access to emotional and affective aspects of the people-place nexus. By giving insights into the more-than-representational, the paper argues that the methods can be used in substantiating claims for the social values of everyday heritage and should thus be taken into consideration when it comes to heritage management.