The promotion of London as a ‘walkable city’ and overlapping walks of life

This chapter begins by discussing the role of walking in London’s regeneration strategies, particularly in terms of the ‘social benefi ts’ of walking as cited in pedestrian policy documents. It is argued that terms such as ‘social mixing’, ‘community cohesion’ and ‘social interaction’ are rarely unpacked so it is unclear as to what they actually mean, or the specifi c role walking has in facilitating them. The chapter moves on to examine these ‘social benefi ts’ in light of empirical data collected in inner London in 2005/6. The local data reveals how

walking does not facilitate social interactions and exchanges in straightforward ways. Acknowledging debates that assert there is an over-privileging of face-toface interaction in constructions of ‘community’, the chapter illustrates the signifi - cance of walking in maintaining existing social relations as opposed to creating new ones (see Young, 1990; Larsen et al., 2006). The chapter concludes by discussing the implications of these fi ndings in relation to the promotion of walking for engendering social mixing in London.