A Year of Immersion into the River Thames: Diving into the seasonal social worlds of river swimming

拟议的博士实地考察将利用定性方法，逐步深入研究游泳者的社会世界，从游泳参与者观察到访谈和GoPro视频日记。由贝茨博士和莫尔斯博士首创的GoPro日记是一种特别新颖的工具，用于获取游泳时的多感官环境。在参与者观察和半结构化访谈的补充下，拟议的博士项目将各种方法交织在一起，进行一次时空之旅，在一年的周期内与泰晤士河游泳者（重新）联系和（重新）沉浸。与他们的主管密切合作，道德考虑将是关键，并从一开始就建立道德许可的培训和准备。研究人员的安全将借鉴民族志田野调查的既定程序，特别关注与野外行走和“沉浸式”方法相关的问题，利用拟议的主管的专业知识和支持，以及与在社会科学研究所进行的类似工作相关的既定研究安全程序和协议。

The proposed PhD fieldwork will utilise qualitative methods that progressively dive deeper into swimmers' social worlds from swim-along participant observation to interviews and GoPro video diaries. GoPro diaries, pioneered by Dr Bates and Dr Moles, are a particularly novel tool for accessing the multisensory atmospheres of swimming. Complemented by participant observation and semi-structured interviews, the proposed PhD interweaves methods to conduct a spatial-temporal journey, (re)connecting and (re)immersing with Thames swimmers over a one-year cycle. Working closely with their supervsiors, ethical considerations will be key and training and preparation for ethical clearance will be built in from the start. Researcher safety will draw on established procedures for ethnographic fieldwork, particular attention will be paid to issues connected to walking and 'immersive' methods in wild spaces, drawing on the expertise and support of the proposed supervsiors and established research safety procedures and protocols associated with similar work that has been conducted in SOCSI.