The embodied spatialities of being in nature: encountering the nature/culture binary in green/blue space

Abstract

The contact with nature provided by urban green and blue space is said to be beneficial for mental health, physical health, social contact and cohesion, and for learning and development among children. Yet the literature identifying these benefits fails to recognise that 'nature', as a category in binary relation with 'culture' (or 'humans'), is a cultural construct. Acknowledging this inevitably raises questions about exactly what 'contact with nature' in such spaces might consist in. Taking inspiration from more-than-representational and more-than-human geographies, this article uses Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology to interrogate encounters with 'nature' through small boat sailing. I argue that being on a boat entails different embodied spatialities of being from terrestrial urban life, and that this heightens a sense of nature as Other. The nature/culture binary, while a cultural idea, is materially (re)produced through the ordering of space, particularly in dense urban areas. This implies that the significance of urban green/blue space may be not only the presence of non-humans (the green/blue), but also the nature of the space in which we encounter nature. There is, then, potential for cultural geography to contribute to a much more nuanced interrogation of how people experience urban green/blue space, foregrounding the cultural conditions that shape such experience.

Slow nature-focused leisure in the days of COVID-19: repressive myths, social (in)justice, and hope

“…People who spend time in nature experience awe, enhanced vitality, and increased engagement according to Attention Restoration Theory (Kaplan 1995) and Stress Reduction Theory (Ulrich et al 1991). Much of the leisure studies research on the health benefits of engaging in natural environments and green spaces highlights the corollary benefits of better sleep, strong social ties, higher levels of impulse control, and reductions in risky health behaviours such as smoking, overeating, and drug or alcohol abuse (Couper 2018;Wagner and Heatherton 2010).…”

“…The history of outdoor recreation as a white, male, class-privileged domain still influences the administration and practice of programmes (Finney 2014;Gray and Mitten 2018;Laurendeau 2020;Warren and Breunig 2019). In fact, the concept of nature itself exists as a binary to the category 'human' and is characteristic of Anglo-European thought (Couper 2018). Much of the literature on nature and human wellbeing is biased towards the northern hemisphere, dominated by research in Europe and the United States, such that any reference to 'us' is both culturally specific and rooted in anthropocentric views (Couper).…”

The vitalizing sea: embodiment and wellbeing on a sea-kayak journey

“…Paterson's (2009) perspectives on haptic knowledges and sensuous disposition representing a being-in-the-world, however have been emerging in some outdoor recreation studies. For instance Couper's (2018) persepctive on spatilities of being and Allen-Collinson & Leledaki's (2015) exploration of sensory phenomenology in outdoors leisure studies. According to Dykes & Miles (2018) the rhythm of movement and speed are unique sensations in a kayak that comprises a distinctive shared embodiment.…”

“…'Being in the world' according to Heidegger (1996) relates to our directedness and intentionality's with the available knowledges of being we possess. In the same way that, diving opens up a certain phenomenological underwater universe, of movements and sensations (Merchant 2011) or sailing certain embodied spatiality's of being (Couper, 2018), sea-kayaking may facilitate other states of being. Varley (2011) highlighted the liminal quality of seakayaking experiences as chiefly countercultural and deeply reinvigorating.…”

Geografias criativas: afinidades experienciais na relação arte-geografia

“…Destaca-se que essa convergência também é realizada por conta de uma aproximação das artes ao campo de pesquisa geográfico (VOLVEY, 2007). Em movimentos como Land Art ou Environmental Art, os artistas lidam com questões ambientais, cartográficas ou de lugar (CASEY, 2005). A afinidade mútua abrange possibilidades intrigantes para ambas áreas.…”