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Worn Shoes: Identity, Memory and Footwear

Author

Listed:
  • Jenny Hockey
  • Rachel Dilley
  • Victoria Robinson
  • Alexandra Sherlock

Abstract

This article raises questions about the role of footwear within contemporary processes of identity formation and presents ongoing research into perceptions, experiences and memories of shoes among men and women in the North of England. In a series of linked theoretical discussions it argues that a focus on women, fashion and shoe consumption as a feature of a modern, western ‘project of the self’ obscures a more revealing line of inquiry where footwear can be used to explore the way men and women live out their identities as fluid, embodied processes. In a bid to deepen theoretical understanding of such processes, it takes account of historical and contemporary representations of shoes as a symbolically efficacious vehicle for personal transformation, asking how the idea and experience of transformation informs everyday and life course experiences of transition, as individuals put on and take off particular pairs of shoes. In so doing, the article addresses the methodological and analytic challenges of accessing experience that is both fluid and embodied.

Suggested Citation

  • Jenny Hockey & Rachel Dilley & Victoria Robinson & Alexandra Sherlock, 2013. "Worn Shoes: Identity, Memory and Footwear," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 18(1), pages 128-142, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:18:y:2013:i:1:p:128-142
    DOI: 10.5153/sro.2897
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    Cited by:

    1. Benjamin N Jacobsen, 2022. "‘You Can’t Delete a Memory’: Managing the Data Past on Social Media in Everyday Life," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 27(4), pages 1003-1019, December.
    2. Katy Pilcher & Wendy Martin, 2020. "Forever ‘Becoming’? Negotiating Gendered and Ageing Embodiment in Everyday Life," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 25(4), pages 698-717, December.
    3. Brandon T. Wallace & David L. Andrews, 2024. "The Contested Terrain of Sporting Consumption: Navigating Meaning, Identity, and Late Capitalist Marketing through Sneaker Customization," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-16, July.

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