Actionary pertinence: Space to place in kitesurfing

Abstract

Contemporary research investigating the phenomena of lifestyle sport has highlighted the centrality of space, spatiality and spatial appropriation. Lifestyle sports tend to manifest in liminal and/or unbounded spaces with practitioners drawing upon the affordances of the natural environment in new and unique ways. Simultaneously, practitioners employ continuously evolving technical tools (equipment) in the undertaking of these activities. This article articulates the ways in which the specialised equipment employed as mediational means affect the perception, interpretation and valuation of physical components of the natural and man-made environment. In this article, I introduce the notion of actionary pertinence and concept of locational element through the analysis of the ways in which general geographic areas (spaces) become actual kitesurfing locations (places) for specific social actors through mediated action and in direct connection to the mediational means through which action occurs. Drawing upon data generated through a year-long video ethnography, I argue that components of the physical environment become locational elements for specific social actors in and through mediated action. This explicitly extends theorisation regarding how mediational means affect and structure the nature of the action they mediate (Vygotsky 1978(Vygotsky , 1987Wertsch 1991Wertsch , 1998, and extends this argument by exemplifying how mediational means also affect and structure the perception and interpretation of physical components of the environment which have a bearing on mediated action. Furthermore, I articulate the ways in which these locational elements are considered, read, re-read and interpreted in terms of their actionary pertinence. Thus, the materiality of locational elements manifests as salient and/or relevant through the bearing an element has on specific mediated actions and practices. Vol 2(2): 123-153 multimodal communication Brought to you by | Carleton University OCUL Authenticated Download Date | 7/7/15 7:12 PM Therefore, in my analysis of kitesurfing locations, I assert that through mediated action and practices, space becomes place and in this process material components of the physical environment acquire particular valuations in relation to mediated action. Then, I illustrate how consideration of location is permeated by the ways in which kitesurfers conceptualise locational elements through three organising principles: possibility, safety and favourability. In doing so, I hope to show how social actors conceive, perceive and interpret components of the physical environment in explicit connection with systems of mediated action (Norris, 124 multimodal communication Brought to you by | Carleton University OCUL Authenticated Download Date | 7/7/15 7:12 PM Brought to you by | Carleton University OCUL Authenticated Download Date | 7/7/15 7:12 PMKitesurfing can only be performed on water. Moreover, the nature of the water must be adequately suited to the velocity, trajectory and distances travelled while k...

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