The term 'therapeutic landscapes' was first coined by health geographer, Wilbert Gesler, in 1992 to explore why certain environments seem to contribute to a healing sense of place. Since then, the concept and its applications have evolved and expanded as researchers have examined the dynamic material, affective and socio-cultural roots and routes to experiences of health and wellbeing in specific places. Drawing on a scoping review of studies of these wider therapeutic landscapes published between 2007 and 2016, this paper explores how, where, and to what benefit the 'therapeutic landscapes' concept has been applied to date, and how such applications have contributed to its critical evolution as a relevant and useful concept in health geography. Building on themes included in two earlier (1999, 2007) edited volumes on Therapeutic Landscapes, we summarise the key themes identified in the review, broadly in keeping with the core material, social, spiritual and symbolic dimensions of the concept initially posited by Gesler. Through this process, we identify strengths and limitations of the concept and its applications, as well as knowledge gaps and promising future directions for work in this field, reflecting critically on its value within health geography and its potential contribution to wider interdisciplinary discussions and debates around 'healthy' spaces, places, and related practices.
In this paper I build on my previous case-study focused research on memorialization to develop a thesis for absence-presence evidenced in vernacular memorial artefacts, spaces and performances at a variety of scales and locations across the British Isles. I make three key arguments: i) for bringing the universally significant experience of absence through bereavement to the fore in cultural geographies of absence; ii) for moving beyond representational and phenomenological analysis of memorial artefacts and spaces to focus critical attention on the contextualized interface between the representational and more-than-representational, embodied and affective practices that surround them, for a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between the living and the absent deceased; and iii) that this interface of form and practice at a variety of vernacular memorials and locations evidences dynamic negotiations of absence-presence. I explore the ways in which the emotions, memory and materiality of absence through death is expressed and negotiated in different memorial forms and landscape settings in the British Isles. Analysis is based on a range of empirical examples drawn from contemporary practices of memorialization and remembrance, and explores how living with absence as a result of bereavement is mediated through different material forms and practices including expressions of ‘continuing bonds’. The discussion is contextualized in relation to wider dialogue on absent presence, but argues that expressions of continuing bonds with the deceased evidence a relational and dynamic absence-presence. Practices associated with absence-presence intersect with growing trends to mark private grief and remembrance of individuals in public space, through the creation of a range of informal memorials that frame a ‘Third Emotional Space’ for the bereaved. The material memorialscape is indicative of the interwoven narrative journeys in and through particular place-temporalities for the living, for whom bereavement is a confluence of emotional-spiritual-practical way-finding.
This paper highlights the significance of the spatial dimensions of the universal human phenomena of bereavement. Grief, mourning and remembrance are experienced in and mapped upon (i) physical spaces, including the public and private arenas of everyday life; (ii) the embodied-psychological spaces of the interdependent and co-producing body-mind and (iii) the virtual spaces of digital technology, religious-spiritual beliefs and non-place-based community. Culturally inflected, dynamic emotional-affective maps of grief can be identified, as a form of deep-mapping, which reflect the ways in which relationality to particular spaces and places is inflected by bereavement, mourning and remembrance. Individual's emotional-affective cartographies can intersect, overlap, or conflict with, others' maps, with social and political consequences. The conceptual framework outlined here is illustrated by a schematic representation of grief maps. This framework provides geographical scholars with a lens on the dynamic assemblage of self-body-place-society that constitutes culturally inflected individual and shared everyday grief maps, providing insight to relational spaces, emotional-affective geographies and therapeutic environments. The reflexive identification of such maps represents a potential resource for the bereaved and their therapeutic counsellors, facilitating the identification of places which evoke anguish or comfort etc. and which might be deemed emotionally 'safe' or 'unsafe' at particular junctures.Keywords: Death; bereavement; relational-space; emotional-affective; corporeal virtual Cartographier le chagrin. Cadre conceptuel pour comprendre les dimensions spatiales de la perte, du deuil et du souvenir Cet article souligne l'importance des dimensions spatiales du phénomène humain universel du deuil. On peut faire l'expérience de la perte, du deuil et du souvenir et les cartographier dans (i) les espaces physiques, comprenant les cercles publics et privés de la vie quotidienne; (ii) les espaces incarnés psychologiques du corps et de l'esprit interdépendants et coproducteurs et (iii) les espaces virtuels de la technologie numérique, les croyances religieuses-spirituelles et la communauté, en dehors de l'espace physique. On peut identifier des cartes du deuil à inflexion culturelle, qui ont une dynamique émotionnelle-affective, sous forme de cartographie en profondeur, qui reflètent les manières dont la relation à des espaces particuliers ou des endroits est influencée par la perte, le deuil et le souvenir. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. Social & Cultural Geography, 2016 Vol. 17, No. 2, 166-188, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2015 fournit aux chercheurs en géographie un object...
This paper evidences persistent gender inequalities in UK higher education (HE) geography departments. The two key sources of data used are: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) data for staff and students, which affords a longitudinal response to earlier surveys by McDowell and McDowell and Peake of women in UK university geography departments, and a qualitative survey of the UK HE geography community undertaken in 2010 that sought more roundly to capture respondent reflections on their careers, choices, status and experiences. Findings show that although the gender gap is closing within HE geography in the UK there are significant ongoing gender disparities. Therefore, the paper argues that the long and demanding process of reducing gender inequalities (alongside other, equally vital intersectional inequalities) requires continued commitment. Furthermore, respondents evidence the cost of these inequalities: enablers and barriers to job security and career progression can have long-term impacts on quality of life and financial security, and affect personal life decisions. In recent years the UK-based Athena Swan and Gender Equality Charter Mark agendas have prompted universities to address gendered disparities and the authors note a changing zeitgeist. The survey findings point to the need for sustained leadership within geography departments to address the day-to-day gender -and other -inequalities experienced in the workplace.The information, practices and views in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG).
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