Morality, mobility and citizenship: Legitimising mobile subjectivities in a contested outdoors

Abstract

1 Morality, mobility and citizenship: legitimising mobile subjectivities in a contested outdoors AbstractIn this article, we examine articulations of mobile citizenship produced through the discursive practices of state agencies, drawing in particular on a study of the contested reconfiguration of outdoor citizenship in Norway. Whilst increased participation and diversity in outdoor activities is highly valued and encouraged because of its social benefits, moral landscapes of the outdoors may be part of settling and reinforcing social differences and existing power relations. The article identifies three discursive normativities through which state officials negotiate mobility and outdoor citizenship; Knowledge, skills and socialisation; Engaging (with) nature; Deserving (in) the outdoors. These normativities serve as a basis for a critical discussion of different aspects of outdoor movement, and how social identities interact with the citizen responsibilities assigned to different forms of mobility, such as mountain biking, skiing and walking. The article demonstrates how and why certain outdoor practices, spaces and boundaries of citizenship are both fluid and critically negotiated by the state officials. By bringing together theories of moral landscapes, mobility and citizenship, the article contributes to understandings of the politics of mobility, and particularly the theorisation of how morality works in relation to different dimensions of mobility. It also highlights how the contestation of mobile citizenship is an issue in rural as well as urban realms.

Korean mothers’ morality in the wake of COVID-19 contact-tracing surveillance

“… Flemsæter et al, 2015 ). Notably, Flemsæter et al (2015) addressed the construction of mobile subjectivities in contested outdoor spaces in terms of “how social identities interact with the citizen responsibilities assigned to different forms of mobility, such as mountain biking, skiing and walking” (p. 342). Similarly, we examine how mobile persons become immoral in the wake of COVID-19 contact tracing.…”

“Off the beaten map”: Navigating with digital maps on moorland

“…Technology and walking in the countryside are typically counterposed in Western societies, with computer technologies associated with increasingly sedentary cultures of work and recreation (Jarkievich et al, 2008;Lorimer, 2011), or more broadly associated with modernity and the distancing of people from the natural environment (Smith & Dunkley, 2018) and one another (Turkle, 2011). Indeed, the absence of contemporary technologies and signs of them (such as phone signal) engenders "rural skill" (Flemsaeter et al, 2015;Hunt, 2016). The characterisation of places as wild, natural, and untouched presupposes the absence or intrusiveness of screens and digital networked technologies (Brown, 2015;Lorimer & Ingold, 2005).…”

Outdoor life, nature experience, and sports in Norway: tensions and dilemmas in the preservation and use of urban forest

“…Researchers have found that the uses of urban green space for recreation and sport are influenced by widely differing social and cultural values (Brown 2014;Flemsaeter, Setten, and Brown 2014;Macnaghten and Urry 1998). For example, people in western countries and of European descent tend to favour physically active forms of recreation performed in minimally managed environments such as 'first growth' urban forests that convey an image of 'authentic naturalness' (Özgüner 2011).…”

“…Participation is indeed increasing, but it has been accompanied by new tensions. The transformation of contemporary outdoor recreation cultures based on new technologies and activities, such as modern skiing on groomed trails, snowboarding, adventure races and trail-biking, often results in discursively contested moral values, identities and practices, as well as spatial conflicts (Brown 2014;Flemsaeter, Setten, and Brown 2014). In addition, increasing urban outdoor recreation facilitation may have negative consequences, such as erosion, loss of biodiversity and fragmentation of habitats that threaten the lives of animals and plants (European Environmental Agency 2010).…”