Some of the really interesting questions that came up over the weekend were related to the role of the researcher in both the research itself and the subsequent writing up, such as:
- What categories are we imposing on the participants/ place, what are we bringing to the research, is it helpful?
- How can we make our writing engaging, whilst covering the essentials?
- How much voice should we give to participants and our own experiences (auto-ethnography)?
Gregynog was chosen as the venue as it was remembered fondly by the organisers, who had all passed through Aberystwyth as PhD students and I can see why, this is my second visit there during the PhD and it is certainly becoming a place I associate with great geographical discussions with enthusiastic geographers.
Thanks to the organisers Sarah Mills and Rhys Dafydd Jones; the chairs, Lucy Jackson and Pete Adey and all the attendees for a lively weekend!
You can read more accounts of the weekend on Simon Cook's blog, Jonathan Kershaw's blog and Richard Scriven's write up for the SCRG - all good stuff from fellow geography PhD students.