wildhood talk at wilderness50

8/10/2019 Wildhood Talk at Wilderness50

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Wildhood

Ecologies of wilderness meaning

throughout everyday life

Mark L. Douglas

University of montana

[email protected]


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We need a philosophical change ofwhat the great outdoors is. We dont ne

go out west or to some faraway place. I

a little stream, out your door, even if itthe city. It exists where we exist.

Council of Environ


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One type of ecological research is conby the search for philosophical unders

Different ways of knowing are consi

be different modes of attuning to the w

Giv


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Wilderness Character may be descrithe combination of biophysical, exper

and symbolic ideals that distinguish

wilderness from all other lands. Landre

introductionWilderness Character


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Wilderness values are any of the meanings, benefits, or va

or society derive from wilderness (NPS, 2014, p. 12).

The meanings related to traditional practices, and traditiona

historic stories are important and vital for understanding cultplace, but are purposefully not integrated with wilderness

character ("#$%&'( )*+,-&.( /&0#-'( 12#34( 5 )6+,7#%0( 89:8

citing Cronon, 2008).

Wilderness characterConfounded Values & Practical Omission


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Existis a sa paslivinorienthe edramlivedexpe

wildhoodExperience and Existence


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Wild nature is

inextricably inthe weave of

self and culture(Snyder, 1990, p.

74).

Connections to nature suffer when environmenmeaning is seen as an experienced-based out

benefit rather than as an emergent and constit

phenomenon. The existential approach is orie

meanings that arise from somebodys own live

and historical situation.

Wilderness visitor experiences take place upo

background of human experience in general. T

Im making is toward the background ordinary of people.

This broadens the domain of wilderness meanbeyond recreational experiences that happen

bounded space.

This move is important because it will enhance

understanding of the roles wilderness plays in

life.

Existence & ExperienceWilderness Meanings


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!

THE questions

1) What are the variouswilderness meanings thatarise in life?

2)

How do lived wildernessmeanings impact peoples

lives?


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THE literature

Meanings are cognitive representatiat the surface of consciousness and demotional interpretations in the depof awareness (Williams & Patterson,1999).

individuals, groups, and communiticonstruct and experience places in thlandscape in subjective ways (Willia& Patterson, 1996, p. 518).


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THE literature

Person and world are not separate and twbut indivisible and one. These notions gobeyond the subjectivity aspect evident in

the human dimensions research mentionabove. Human beings are inescapably

immersed and enmeshed in theirworld (Seamon and Sowers, 2009, para. 1


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Conventional

Rooted in cognitive

psychology.

Focus is on individual

psychological mental states,

behavioral choices,

motivations, and

satisfactions.

Humans give meanings to

objects due to their

relationship with that object

and its utility.

Tends to ignore historical and

cultural contexts,

interpersonal interaction,

social processes, and their

influence on behavior.

Constitutive (representational)

Arose from environmental

psychology and

phenomenological

orientations in sociology andgeography.

Focus is on representation of

ideas, beliefs, and meanings

within the symbolic order and

the ways these are

manipulated in social

interaction to organize reality.

Meanings construct how

people identify and define

themselves and the world

around themselves.

Separates the symbolic order

and the particular situations

within which that order is

realized. Divides meanings

from the world.

Non-representa

Emerged from s

constructivism an

structuralism

Focus is on lived p

with attention given

and absent entities t

worlds and act in

within relatio

configuration

Meaning is thought-

The way we carry o

and deal with thing

world enacts mean

are conducted and c

in the course o

Asks how sens

significance emerg

practices, how prac

organized, and

researchers can a

events in becom

Roots

Focus

Role of

Meanings

Consideration

wildhoodApproaches to Meaning


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wildhoodEveryday Life

Everyday life is a host of routine activities, pand public, carried out on a regular, if not acdaily, basis; such as eating, sleeping, working

commuting, shopping and so on (Ferguson, 164).Its everywhere, and we live through it like

proverbially live in water (Brinkmann, 201


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wildhoodInvocative and Convocative Methods

The essence of the image as a phenomenolodevice is neither some representational figudepicting the likeness or resemblance of somor someone, nor is the image the visual copyoriginal to which it is mimetically related. Timageis an alluring figurethat triggers th

imaginary faculty (Van Manen, 2014, p. 262


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wildhoodMetaphor and Allure

Allure is a general term to cover both the coand charming ways of encountering the sinobjects.Sincerity "exists for all objects at all times" w

allure "occurs only in special experiences anseems to have something to do with separat

agent from its specific qualities" (Harman, 20142).


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There is one major requirement of meta"that it shatters the usual immediate bo

between an object and its notes, and use

or more of these notes as a secret pipelinthrough which all the mysterious reson

of flame flow directly into the body of t

cypress" (Harman, 2005, p 176).


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Given the metaphor, cypress tree is flame, wget

three consequences.

1.The cypress recedes into the distance, while

dominating its notes.

2.

The notes of the cypress are converted into sobjects.

3.

New tangible elements are released into the

(Harman, 2005, pp. 176-178)


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1. Storytelling

2. Missed issues and images

3. Sorting

4. Construct elicitation

5. Most concordant image

wildhoodTechnique


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6. Opposite image

7. Sensory images

8. Concept map

9. Montage

10. Vignette

wildhoodTechnique


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01Ecological research can be a searchfor philosophical understanding.

02Wilderness Character omits therole of wilderness in everyday life.

03Conventional and constitutive

approaches to environmentalmeaning are inadequate.

04Existence is an interpforeground and backgcontext and content.

05Everyday life researchparticipatory, focusedexperience, and conce

audacious.

06Metaphor is the most

and powerful case of aus further characterizof wilderness.

wildhoodRecapitulation


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&QuestionsAnswers


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Mark L. DouglasPO Box 2244

Bigfork, MT 59911

[email protected]+1 615 347 9180

http://wildhood.net

t

v

A D D R E S S P H O N E & E M A I L

S O C I A L M E D I A

@douglas_mark

fb.com/markd0uglas

Contact me

wildhood


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wildhoodReferences

Blatnner, W. (2006). Heideggers Being and Time. New York, NY: Continuum.

Brinkmann, S. (2012). Qualitative inquiry in everyday life: Working with everyday life materiaCA: Sage.

Council on Environmental Quality. (2011).Americas great outdoors: A promise to future gen

Washington, DC: U. S. Department of Agriculture, U. S. Department of the Interior,

Protection Agency. Retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.gov/ sites/default/files/mi

ago_report_-_report_only_2-7-11.pdf

Cowley, J., Landres, P., Memory, M., Scott, D. & Lindholm, A. (2012). Integrating cultural reswilderness character. Park Science. 28(3), 29-33; 38.

Cronon, W. (2008). The riddle of the Apostle Islands: How do you manage a wilderness full oIn M. P. Nelson & J. Baird Callicott (Eds.), The wilderness debate rages on(pp. 632University of Georgia Press.

Ferguson, H. (2009). Self-identity and everyday life. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.Given, L. M. (Ed.). (2008). The Sage encyclopedia of qualitative research methods. Sage Pu

Harman, G. (2005). Guerrilla metaphysics: Phenomenology and the carpentry of things. Per

Publishing.

wildhood


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wildhoodReferences

Landres, P., Barns, C., Dennis, J.G., Devine, T., Geissler, P., McCasland, C.S., Merigliano, L

Swain, R. (2008). Keeping it wild: an interagency strategy to monitor trends in wildeacross the National Wilderness Preservation System (RMRS-GTR-212). Fort Collin

Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station.

Maffesoli, M. (1989). The sociology of everyday life (epistemological elements). Current Soc

National Park Service. (2014). Keeping it wild in the National Park Service: A user guide to in

wilderness character into park planning, management, and monitoring.U. S. Depar

Interior, National Park Service. Retrieved from: http://wilderness.nps.gov/RM41/6_WildernessStewardship/ WildernessStewardshipPlanHandbook_2014.pdf

Seamon, D. & Sowers, J. (2009). Existentialism / existential geography. In R. Kitchen & N. Tinternational encyclopedia of human geography, vol. 3, (pp. 666-671). Oxford, UK: from: http://www.arch.ksu.edu/seamon/existential% 20geog%20seamon%20%26%

Snyder, G. (2010). The practice of the wild. Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint Press.Van Manen, M. (2014). Phenomenology of practice: Meaning-giving methods in phenomeno

and writing. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.

Williams, D. R. & Patterson, M. E. (1996). Environmental meaning and ecosystem managemfrom environmental psychology and human geography, Society & Natural Resource

Journal, 9(5), 507-521.

wildhood


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wildhoodReferences

Williams, D. R. & Patterson, M. E. (1999). Environmental psychology: Mapping landscape m

ecosystem management. In. H. K. Cordell & J. C. Bergstrom (Eds.), Integrating socecosystem management: Human dimensions in assessment, policy, and managem

Champaign, IL: Sagamore Press.

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