
Shared Walks is an initiative that creates encounters by walking in public space. It connects people to walk together, initiates social interactions and creates possibilities for the appropriation of space and participation in segregated societies. The card set is a toolkit prepared by Shared Walks to open this method for use by different organizations and individuals around the world. Shared Walks opens a playful space for the exploration of the environment and others by walking. Participants walk together in pairs, collect and share observations, impressions, thoughts, feelings, memories, stories, associations etc, and map their city from different perspectives. Different types of walks propose minor changes to the way we walk normally to pave the way to an appropriation of places, get in relation to others and trigger self-awareness. Shared Walks card set deals with themes related to senses, perceptions and bodily experiences in public space; personal memories and social histories for collective imagination and narration; personal limits in relation to others in society; awareness of the cultural diversity in cities; discovering the symbolic dimensions of physical spaces; and finding comfort in people and places by exploring and discovering public spaces.
Shared Walks was initiated by Eylem Ertürk and Bernd Rohrauer in Vienna in 2018. Logo Design by Raphael Volkmer.

The Card Set
Shared Walks Card Set includes 30 different walks related to 6 thematic areas. Themes provide the basic structure and highlight the main issues that Shared Walks deals with. There are 5 different walks under each theme, which have primary relation to that subject.

Civil society organizations, state institutions and private companies working on local issues can use the card set to host a Shared Walks activity for non-profit purposes. It is suitable for use in community building, neighbourhood mapping, local participation, awareness raising, social inclusion, non-formal learning, knowledge sharing, team building, networking, socio-spatial research etc. The Shared Walks Card Set is available on the Shared Walks website in English-German & French-Dutch.

Any organisation or individual who considers the method useful for their purposes can download the card set and manual and use it for free under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Activities
Shared Walks was developed through public events organised in collaboration with different organisations. Researching the question “How can we walk with others?”, the initial phase of Shared Walks was designed as Walking Research Laboratories. The second phase focused on local interactions through Neighbourhood Mapping. Since 2018, Shared Walks walkshops and roundtables have been realised in collaboration with different local organisations, within festivals or walking/research conferences:


22 April – 13 May – 10 June – 8 July – 9 September – 7 October 2023
12 October – 12 November 2022 | Shared Walks with Nachbarschaftsheim Schöneberg, in collaboration with Asuman Kırlangıç, 12161 Berlin, Germany
18 December 2021 | Shared Walks k48 – Offensive für zeitgenössische Wahrnehmung, 1070 Vienna, Austria
2 October 2020 | Shared Walks with Gebietsbetreuung Stadterneuerung, 1030 Vienna, Austria
23 November 2019 | Shared Walks in Galerie Freihausgasse Villach, within the exhibition “Wo ist das Kind? Kunst in der Stadt”, Villach, Austria
5 October 2019 | Shared Walks in the Socially Engaged Design Conference, Limassol, Cyprus
19 September 2019 | Shared Walks with Gebietsbetreuung Stadterneuerung, 1210 Vienna, Austria
3 July 2019 | Shared Walks in the Walking Practices / Walking Art / Walking Bodies Conference, Prespes, Greece
17 May 2019 | Shared Walks in #kommraus, 1100 Vienna, Austria
25–27 October 2018 | Shared Walks in the Urbanize! Festival, 1020 Vienna, Austria
28 September 2018 | Shared Walks in the Tag der Wohnstrasse – space and place, 1150 Vienna, Austria
16 June 2018 | Shared Walks in the Brotfabrik Festival, 1110 Vienna, Austria
15 June 2018 | Shared Walks in SOHO in Ottakring Festival with Einander bewegt, 1160 Vienna, Austria
9 June 2018 | Shared Walks in Jane’s Walk, 1010 Vienna, Austria
30 May & 8 June 2018 | Shared Walks with Youth Centers Association, 1100 & 1220 Vienna, Austria
23 May 2018 | Shared Walks with wohnpartner, 1150 Vienna, Austria 21 April 2018 | Shared Walks with Agenda 21 Landstrasse, 1030 Vienna, Austria


Shared Walks / Climate Change Edition
The emotional and physical loss experienced due to climate change can be overwhelming and debilitating. How can we walk with others as climate change makes life increasingly difficult? Developed in 2020/2021 as an extension of Shared Walks and based on the collaboration of Eylem Ertürk and Ayşem Mert, Shared Walks / Climate Change Edition focuses on the effects of climate change and aims to explore how embodied experience can turn into reflection and awareness, and how this can, in turn, enable agency and action. It aims to respond to the climate emergency by walking and exploring urban and rural environments to trace our experiences about the influences of climate change and the relationships between the human psyche and the more-than-human environment.
