Wildland Fire and Organic Discourse: Negotiating Place and Leisure Identity in a Changing Wildland Urban Interface

Abstract

A lack of research on the conceptual intersection of leisure, place and wildland fire and its role in identity prompted this exploratory study.

How natural disturbance triggers political conflict: Bark beetles and the meaning of landscape in the Bavarian Forest

“…This discursive constellation does not map easily onto the classic opposition of humanist and protectionist discourses of nature (Fine, 1998; see also Champ et al, 2009). While people opposed to letting nature follow its course consider humans as stewards of the forest and the bark beetle as a threat, they do not subscribe to the sharp distinction between culture and nature -a typical element of the humanist discourse that Fine (1998, p. 11) cites.…”

“…This is in stark contrast to the situation on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska, for example, where the loss of scenic quality also was a salient concern, but the threat to community identity a rather marginal one (Flint, 2007(Flint, , p. 1602. The pivotal role of the landscape as a meaningful visual symbol of identity thus presents an important extension of previous studies that have focused on the discursive construction of natural disturbance in the case of wildfire (Whittaker and Mercer, 2004) and its association with identities (Champ et al, 2009).…”

“…Research has examined aspects such as the perception and social construction of natural disturbance (Champ et al, 2009;Flint, 2006Flint, , 2007McFarlane and Watson, 2008;Whittaker and Mercer, 2004), people's attitudes and support for management strategies (Absher et al, 2006;Bright et al, 2007;Burns and Cheng, 2007;Flint et al, 2009;Kneeshaw et al, 2004;McFarlane et al, 2006), community vulnerability (Collins and Bolin, 2009;Parkins and MacKendrick, 2007) and cohesion and conflict (Carroll et al, 2005;Carroll et al, 2006;Flint and Luloff, 2007). The perception and management preferences of visitors in protected areas affected by natural disturbance have also been the subject of some studies (McFarlane and Watson, 2008;Mü ller and Job, 2009).…”

“…Conflict over the management of fire arises in particular from a clash of local agency and disembedded, bureaucratic rationality that is perceived as far removed from local realities Champ et al (2009) Wildfire Colorado, US Semi-structured interviews with homeowners and recreationists…”

Key Aspects of Leisure Experiences in Protected Wilderness Areas: Notions of Nature, Senses of Place and Perceived Benefits

“…The complete transcription of the interviews was done as they were being undertaken, by the research teams, in order to capture information that helped to interpret the data from the start [67]. They were transcribed and analyzed through repeated reading of transcripts [68], in order to obtain a deeper understanding of each text. The interviews were analyzed using the Atlas Ti software version 8.4.24.0, reference number 103865351 that allowed extracting, categorizing, and intertwining segments of data, facilitating the application of the constant comparative method [69].…”