HIKING THE NORTH DOWNS WAY
EXPLORING CONTEMPORARY EXPERIENCES OF THE BRITISH
COUNTRYSIDE
MASTERS THESIS URBAN AND
REGIONAL PLANNING
GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL
SCIENCES
author
supervisor
second reader
academic year
date of submission
word count
student number
email address
Laetitia Iris Lovell Mendel Giezen Herman Kok 2017/2018 11/06/2018 16,936 11261749 laetitia.lovell@gmail.com
masters thesis urban and regional planning
graduate school of social sciences
abstract
This research explores the effects of technology on personal experiences of nature. Within theoretical speculations about the social construction of nature and technology (Haraway, 1991), time-space compression (Harvey, 1990; Massey, 1992) ideas of landscape as commodity (Wapner, 2010), and writings on the relationship between self and other and place-making within the practice of walking (Wylie, 2005; Edensor, 2000), I seek to understand how living in geographically fragmented spaces affects hikers’ interactions with the British countryside. Using discourse analysis to explore representations of nature and mind-maps and story telling as ethnographic research (Wheeldon & Faubert, 2009), I reveal that technologies have a great impact on how we perceive and interact with the countryside. Basic tools as well as more intangible technologies contribute to place-making of an often exclusionary nature, where the political essence of technology (Winner, 1980) is combined with ethnic and class divergences of perception (Suckall, 2009). Technology can also assist in piecing together geographically and emotionally fragmented spaces, allowing for an increase in awareness of the size of space (our planet) and the natural passing of time: both crucial in order to grasp the scale of environmental degradation. It is also revealed that there is an existing paradox between wilderness and commodity: instead of being two exclusive concepts, they appear to be two sides of the same coin. Final conclusions suggest the future of the field may lie within the successful merging of technology and countryside in the form of walking meetings (Ahtinen, 2016).
acknowledge-
ments
I owe great gratitude to Dr. Mendel Giezen of the Geography and Urban Planning Department at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). The following research would not have been achievable without his constant support, insight and feedback. I must also thank the participants of the research project for their generosity of time in kindly offering thorough data through the somewhat demanding method of mind-map construction and story telling. Furthermore, my lecturers throughout the academic year at UvA set regular challenges that allowed me to acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to produce this piece of work.
table of content
Abstract . . . Acknowledgements . . . Table of contents . . . List of figures . . . List of tables . . . List of abbreviations . . . Chapter 1. Introduction . . . Chapter 2. Theoretical Framework . . . 2.1. The Social Construction of Nature . . . . 2.2. Time-Space compression . . . 2.3. Walking and Identity . . . 2.4. Operationalisation . . . Chapter 3. Methodology . . . 3.1. Desktop Data Collection . . . 3.1.1. Historical and Cultural Relevance of theBritish Countryside . . . 3.1.2. Online Analysis of Contemporary Discourse Around the NDW . . . 3.2. Ethnographic approach . . . 3.2.1. Mind-Map and Story Collection . . . 3.2.2. Mind-Map and Story Analysis . . . 3.2.3. A Shift From Rigid to Creative Methods . . . 3.3. Limitations . . . 3.4. Outcomes . . . 3.5. Risk Assessment and Ethics . . .
i ii iii v vi vi 1 5 5 7 9 10 12 13 13 13 14 14 16 16 17 17 17
Chapter 4. British Hiking and Perceptions of Nature . . . 4.1. Cultural relevance of the British
Countryside . . . 4.1.1 Overview . . . 4.1.2. Landscapes. . . 4.1.3 Identity . . . 4.1.4 Tools . . . 4.2. The North Downs Way Today . . . 4.3. Mind-Maps and Short Stories . . . 4.3.1. Common Themes . . . 4.3.2. Use of Technology . . . Chapter 5. Discussion: Coming to Terms With a Smart
Countryside . . . 5.1. Place-making . . . 5.2. Tackling Geographic Fragmentation . . . 5.2.1. Emotional Geographies . . . 5.2.2. Time-Space Decompression . . . 5.3. The Wilderness/Commodity Paradox . . . 5.4. Walking Meetings . . . Chapter 6. Conclusions . . . . . . Chapter 7. Reflections and Recommendations . . . 7.1. Relevance for Planning . . . 7.2. Relevance for Methodology. . . Bibliography . . . Annexes . . . . 18 18 18 21 22 23 23 26 27 32 34 35 37 37 39 41 43 45 48 48 49 50 54
list of figures
Figure 1: Illustration of Time-Space Compression . . . Figure 2: Conceptual Model for Operationalisation . . Figure 3: Example of a Mind-Map . . . Figure 4: Letter My Impressions of Life in the
Country. . .
Figure 5: Early 1900s British Transport Posters . . . Figure 6: The Hay Wain . . . Figure 7: Historical Timeline . . . Figure 8: Map of the North Downs Way. . .
8 11 14 19 20 21 22 24
list of tables
Table 1: Example of Wheeldon and Faubert’s
(2009) Concept Counting . . .
list of
abbreviations
NDW North Downs Way OS Ordnance Survey TSC Time Space Compression UvA University of Amsterdam
Tell of an order'd peace, safe in some sheltering farm: Yes, 'tis a noble view! But more than the beauty of
Nature, More than the things we see, lives in this quiet around; Years that are gone long ago, and centuries dead and
departed, Rise through our searching souls into their places again. Ah, what a long, long line of lofty and storied emotion Glows through those gaunt old trees, out of a far-away
world!1
Hiking along the North Downs Way is a popular activity in the South East of England. Londoners visit to escape the city and locals enjoy their nearby countryside. The practice of walking has evolved from being the main means of transportation into an activity of
Extract from Then and Now - The North Downs Way, poem by Arthur Joseph Munby
1
chapter 1.
leisure (Edensor, 2000). Edensor writes that as walking has become an institutionalised practice, it characterises a search for identification and may bring epiphanies of self-realisation. However, though nature may be able to help us define ourselves, “the hiker” personality is itself strongly defined by cultural pre-conceptions (McCabe, 2004). Equally, we contribute to the reshaping of landscapes by engaging in the social activity of walking: ‘social demand for landscape is growing and a shift from a functional image of nature and landscape to a more hedonistic image like the Arcadian and wilderness images has taken place’ (Buijs et al., 2005: 375). Cronon (1995: 79) writes, ’there is nothing natural about the concept of wilderness. It is entirely a creation of the culture it holds dear’.
Indeed, the existence of wildness is becoming ever more debatable (Wapner, 2010; Ramadanovic, 2013). Impacts of urbanisation are felt in the most remote parts of the world. Whether it be due to climate change or technology’s global coverage, there is no place untouched by humans. Human intervention is everywhere, and, ironically, preserving nature requires human action too. To what extent then, does the natural exist? As we destroy certain environmental systems, we also attempt to reproduce them: the UK government announced in February 2018 the construction
of the Northern Forest, a so-called “green megaproject”, according to City Metric (url ), 2
involving the plantation of 50 million trees in the North of England, where hikers are supposedly expected to experience the wildness of the woods. Our understanding of the natural world is greatly impacted when we attempt to recreate it in non-organic ways. In relation to walking, the words “epiphany” or “enlightenment” tend to trigger images of new-age, spiritual practices involving candles and meditation. But of all the contexts, it is rare we experience unworldly connections to our surroundings in the midst of rush hour in a big city. Grasping the sensations of defining oneself and ‘other’ require some sort of peace and calm. This is believed to happen when we remove all the nonsense surplus from daily contemporary life and simply focus on the human body and nature. But how can we do this when we rarely find ourselves in such situations any more?
Historical domination of nature by humans, means that our consciousness applied to our image of wilderness undermines its supposed innocence (Haraway, 1991). Haraway was a pioneer in studying the social construction of nature. She writes that western society displays a ‘tradition of the appropriation of nature as a resource for the production of culture’ (1991: 5). As the concept of “nature as unknown”
https://www.citymetric.com/fabric/so-north-england-really-getting-enormous-new-forest-3660
loses its meaning, we may wonder how we then define our experiences of walking in the countryside as urbanised creatures. How do we distinguish between the wild and the familiar when landscape representations as well as representations of appropriate behaviour of “the walker in the landscape”, are so present in discourse, art, literature, and social media. How does our experience of nature relate to our preconception of it and ourselves? To take the sociality of nature even further, thanks to satellites we have full global map coverage. How, then, do new navigational tools influence our encounter with nature? Following the emergence of the smart city, are we now facing the smart countryside?
The impacts of navigational systems have often been studied in urban contexts and not so much rural areas. Drawing on a Faucouldian sense of space, in which much of what we do and see exists within virtual spaces of meaning and produce a warped sense of time, the following research is concerned with the contributions of technology on peoples’ sense of physical space. Doreen Massey’s (1992) theory of time-space compression reveals the impacts of modern technologies on our experience of space. She claims space and place become distorted and diminished by the influence of rapid connectivity. Traditional navigation and human displacement took time and demanded attention toward our surroundings — North and South, the sun, the wind — despite the
availability of numerous tools. But new technologies allow us to create a customised vision of the world and can tell us how to move around. Wilderness is by definition understood to be messy and remote, and the excitement of the wild comes from the difficulty to map it out. So how are we experiencing nature when walking with navigational tools such as maps on our phones?
In order to answer these questions, a case study was conducted along the North Downs Way in the UK. Hiking along this path is a western experience of nature, and technology has hugely increased its accessibility. But how does accessibility relate to the experience of wilderness? The walk has online coverage by Surrey County Council, and is marketed as the most beautiful scenery in the South East of England. Online mapping and route planning is available from the Ordnance Survey website, including downloads of detailed data sets mapped out for potential hikers. Edensor (2000) suggests walkers may experience a revelation of the superficiality of their over-socialised identities, while John Wylie (2005: 234) writes about sensations such as ‘visual exhilaration’ and ‘epiphany’ when walking along the South Coast Path. How can nature let us experience our true natural selves when the practice of hiking is deeply socialised and thus nature partly exists within the virtual realm of the urban imagination?
The following study analyses the relationship between technology and the experience of nature. It does not intend to tackle the deeply controversial questions raised by Haraway, about nature and societies interconnectedness. Instead, it aims to improve understanding about the influence of navigational and representational technology on our experience of the countryside. There is no intention to accuse such practices of being either unnatural or natural, the aim is purely to shed light on the ways in which technology changes what we
mean and experience in relation to nature.
The problem identified is a result of current urban planning paradigms, but revealing its peculiarities is a cause for sensitivity that can help guide future projects in planning for nature. Understanding how geographic fragmentation manifests itself when walking in the countryside shall be done by investigating two aspects of technological influence on nature: 1) how it changes the meaning of nature, and 2) how it changes our experience of nature. The former shall be explored through desktop research and the latter using qualitative ethnographic methods such as participant initiated mind-maps and story-telling.
The following chapter explores previously established theories related to our conceptions and experiences of nature and place. It discusses the intersections between literature covering the concepts of: a socially constructed nature; dimensions of time-space compression
(in which nature often appears as a commodity); and walking as an ultimate connection between self and other, possibly enabling epiphanies. Chapter three lays out the methodological approach taken to conduct the research and establishes techniques used for data collection and analysis, as well as clarifying the ethical and inductive positioning. Chapter four covers the collected data. It consists of a historical background of the NDW, its contemporary representations, as well as mind-map and story-telling results. Chapter five is devoted to discussing the data in relation to the theoretical framework and the research question. Concluding remarks are laid out in chapter six. And finally, chapter seven is devoted to reflecting on the research, and recommendations for future studies in the field.
The social construction of nature has been explored by numerous scholars. Donna Haraway is a pioneer in the field of society, nature and technology studies. She writes that ‘Western society displays a tradition of the
appropriation of nature as a resource for the production of culture’ (1991: 5). As opposed to claiming that nature is socially constructed, and thus inexistent through its own terms, Haraway in fact questions the use of binary terminology altogether (nature/culture, society/ technology) and argues for acknowledgement of heterogenous realities in which nature and culture are co-produced. Indeed, she claims
2.1. THE SOCIAL
CONSTRUCTION OF NATURE
chapter 2.
theoretical
framework
that nothing is unnatural, even the most advanced of technologies. In this light, it is more contextually appropriate to use the terminology of wilderness and unpredictability throughout the following study. Indeed, the p a r a g r a p h s b e l o w a i m t o p r o m o t e understanding on how the experience of sensations such as remoteness and immensity could be disappearing in parallel with urbanisation, and giving way to new countryside experiences that induce feelings of familiarity and accessibility as we begin to tame nature. As opposed to questioning the existence of a natural world which is indisputably very real and demands our respect (Demeritt, 2002:768), the nature of this natural world shall serve as the centre of analysis. Wapner writes that humans have for decades been ‘altering nature beyond repair or overlaying human thought too thickly on the nonhuman world so as to rid ourselves access to a realm independent from human society’, he goes on to say that ‘to some, this has meant the disenchantment of the world; to others it has meant a pressing threat to human physical well-being and survival’ (2010: 4). The theoretical framework used throughout this p a p e r d r a w s o n Wa p n e r ’s i d e a o f disenchantment of the world that occurs when using technology to distort our experiences of nature, instead of focussing on impacts of tools that physically harm nature. He writes that we rely on the wildness of earth for our survival,
but that we are consuming the wildness of nature by turning it into a commodity ready for exploitation. He says ‘our minds are taming it; our technologies are rendering it usable; our affluence is exploiting it; our power in general is transforming it’ (2010: 4).
The fact that our minds are taming nature can be seen in the ways imagery has become ever more prominent in modern society. The ease at which we access visuals of nature through technology means we are increasingly accustomed to the idea of nature and so it b e c o m e s l e s s t h r e a t e n i n g . T h e s e representations, in turn, greatly influence how we interact with nature and the countryside. Modern society’s virtual and commercial spaces allow us to see landscapes flourish on screens, hear birds chirp with the click of a button, and probably even smell exotic plants thanks to near immediate online deliveries. These achievements cause us to culturally reshape and dominate nature through imagery and discourse. Landscape representations in Britain began appearing in large numbers in the 19th century. These such paintings and publications greatly altered our understanding of the countryside. It was the time of Romanticism, when innovations in the British transport system transformed walking from the activity of the poor, criminal and homeless, into a ‘pursuit of ideological and aesthetic notions’ (Edensor, 2000: 83). In reality, nature had not changed one bit, simply the ways we
could now represent it as a noble activity meant it gained in appeal and lost its wild and filthy reputation: it was tamed by its representations. Along with representations of nature, come clear visions of the appropriate behaviour and expectations of the hiker (Edensor, 2000; McCabe, 2004). He or she is seen as an explorer thought to master the realm of reflexivity through their endeavours. However, Barnes et al. (1992) write about the impossibility to mirror the world through representations; that both representation and object are in the end equally real but entirely different things. Latour (1993) is a strong supporter of this perspective. He believes reality undergoes numerous steps of transformation at each encounter with technology. According to him, humans no longer have full control over their surrounding reality, but instead technology holds part of the agency and strongly shapes the ways we interact with our environment. This stream of thought draws on Foucault’s anti-realist and
constructionist (Bryman, 2012: 529) approach
to discourse, in which there is no such thing as 'an external reality awaiting a definitive portrayal by the researcher and [discourse] therefore disavows the notion that any researcher can arrive at a privileged account of the aspect of the social world being investigated’. The delegation of agency from human to technology has two consequences: the first is that representations of nature have
no value in relation to nature itself, they are merely objects of their own standings; the second is that when we experience nature with technological tools at our disposal, they don’t simply facilitate our experience, they alter and
encourage entirely new ways of behaving
(Latour, 1993; Winner, 1980). These new ways of behaving are immensely prominent in modern society. Without necessarily desiring to change our behaviour we often become so accustomed to new technologies that we no longer recognise the effects they have on our surroundings.
Technological tools do indeed alter the ways we interact with space and place. As Tsatsou (2009: 22) suggests that space is both a ‘geographical and a socio-economic dimension of existence’, it could be argued that technology’s capacity to speed up connectivity diminishes the importance of geographic existence and promotes a way of appreciating our surroundings based upon cultural, social and economic relevance. Equally, Wapner’s idea of rendering nature usable through technology can refer to numerous processes. Most established and tangible being activities such as mining and farming. But the ones of interest here are technological processes that claim to preserve the physical aspects of nature
but alter the intangible landscape. Buijs et al. refer to the ‘social substance’ of nature (2005: 376). The authors distinguish between material and immaterial dimensions of landscape. Within the immaterial landscape, they write that ‘the social substance refers to the inter-subjective landscape on which we have opinions and to which we can attribute values’ (ibid). Appreciating such values, we may either be physically present in the countryside or resort to immersing ourselves in landscape representations. The idea that we do
not have to be physically present in order to experience realities reflects those of time-space compression, by which technologies and rapid connectivity distort the ways we experience space and place. As illustrated by David Harvey (1990) in Figure 1., as the speed of information transfer increases, space is often perceived as reduced. This figure can be adapted to represent the increase in navigation systems (as opposed to transportation systems) such as satellites, the sextant, the compass etc. David Harvey claims that time-space compression has had a ‘disorienting and disruptive impact upon cultural and social life’ (1989: 77). His writings are based on Marxist ideas that capitalism has caused the ‘annihilation of time by space’, in which everything is a commodity for consumption (ibid). Equally, capitalism’s mass-marketing of images and their ephemerality alter the ways in which we experience time and space. Easy access to visual representations of nature fuel strongly established pre-conceptions and expectations of Buijs et al.’s material dimension of landscape but equally, the mimicking capacity of visuals create an entirely newfound immaterial landscape. Tsatsou (2009) writes that we can be physically present in one place but experience the energy of another through a screen. While Dodgshon (1999) writes that for some, time-space compression ‘can be taken to mean that society is embracing more space within its processes
Figure 1. Illustration of Time-Space Compression by David Harvey (1990) in The Condition of Post
but requiring less time in the process’, David Harvey believes that space, too, is diminished in the process, albeit metaphorically, as it appears reduced and less significant. Similarly, Paul Virilio writes ‘man is present in time, not v i a p h y s i c a l p r e s e n c e , b u t v i a programming’ (Virilio in Decron, 2001: 71). According to Massey, ‘longing for […] coherence is […] a sign of […] geographic fragmentation and spatial disruption of our times’ (2010: 1), and we tend to experience reality in “islands” of physical locations. This phenomenon has been commonly studied in cities and metropolitan hubs where global networks of rapid data connectivity collide. But as the countryside has full satellite coverage, real-time map services and transportation technologies, it also, is subject to geographic fragmentation. Buijs et al. claim that landscapes become experienced as ‘fragmented, standardised and encroached’, as we treat them as ‘leisure commodities’ (Buijs et al., 2003: 376). Are we veering from smart cities to smart countryside? Or, rather, has the countryside become an accessory of the smart city? According to Tsatsou (2009), time-space compression is the distortion of our sense of distance and size. Empirical research on time-space compression is concerned with individuals’ experience of size, grandeur, and immensity of nature which is closely related to its unpredictability and wildness. Tsatsou questions whether electronic media is fuelling
‘“imaginary”, “electronic” or “virtual” spaces that replace existing places as they become accessible via mediated worldwide images: ' b e f o r e t h e a d v e n t o f e l e c t r o n i c communications, people were bound by oral communication and physical travel, whereas today people are able to cross and adjust temporal and spatial distances largely because of the usage of electronic media and communications’ (Tsatsou, 2009: 13). This means that word of mouth and physical travel to the countryside were enough to fuel our opinion about the surrounding landscape. Nowadays, however, communication systems are saturating our daily lives and means of travel allow us to nearly instantly transport ourselves from zones of comfort to unfamiliar places. But does the rapidity of this displacement mean that we can expand the comfort we feel at home to remote areas of exploration? Time-space compression in practice can be identified by the absence of a perception of geographic locality: the lack of appreciation of distance and the feeling that the countryside is merely a city park or ones backyard is significant of geographic fragmentation.
In order to attribute value to possible ways in which we can experience the countryside while
being subject to varying intensities of time-space compression I shall draw on literature by John Wylie (2005), Edensor (2000) and Buijs et al. (2005). Having established that the countryside is produced by representations, it is also created by the paths that walkers follow (Edensor, 2000). In medieval times, people who were not walking within the strict confines of “society” were visibly marked by ‘ p o v e r t y, n a k e d n e s s , i n s a n i t y a n d starvation’ (Urry, 2000: 51). However, nowadays, walkers are not simply subjects, nor victims of the nature around them. Instead, one could argue that the landscape is a victim of the walker ’s trajectory. It is a two-way relationship, and establishing the frontier between self and other can prove tricky. The authors mentioned above write about immensity, anxiety, epiphanies, self-identification and many more enjoyable or frightening sensations we may have when walking in nature. According to Romantic ideals, 'intellectual thinking or aesthetic c o n t e m p l a t i o n ’ ( L e e d , 1 9 9 1 : 7 2 ) a r e unachievable in an urban context. Indeed, they are considered ‘mental stimulations that are inseparable from the physical conditions of movement through space’ (ibid). Is this idealistic reality relevant to contemporary contexts? How likely are we to experience supposed epiphanies when we suffer from geographic fragmentation? And from high expectations of the countryside and the hiker?
Western society shows ‘[a] tradition of reproduction of the self from the reflections of the other’ (Haraway, 1991: 5). Wylie writes that ‘to walk in the English countryside involves at least some attunement with the various sensibilities still distilling from sublime and romantic figurations of self, travel, landscape and nature’ (2005: 235). Wylie emphasis moments, movements, events as three key sensibilities in our experience. Drawing on Gaston Bachelard’s writings, he refers to the woods as a limitless world of unknown. Immensity and intimacy are closely related to a sense of angsts in the face of the overwhelming endlessness of the wild (ibid). But as our modern minds are often saturated with over-socialised information (Virilio, 2001), how do walkers tame such distractions (Edensor, 2000)? Distractions that, according to Virilio, make us absent from our physical location, and present in a dimension of time-space compression.
The problem statement of this research emerges from the need for more literature that covers first hand accounts on countryside experiences in relation to technology. This is of significant importance are we to understand how to plan and care for nature, and also how
to potentially create nature in future development programmes.
The research questions and sub-questions that shall be answered using the theoretical concepts above are as follows: How does technology affect hikers’ experience of nature?; How do representations of nature through technology shape expectations of the c o u n t r y s i d e ? ; H o w d o e s g e o g r a p h i c fragmentation influence the hiker’s experience of nature?; Does it allow them to experience immensity, epiphanies and self-realisations?; Or, on the other hand, does it make hikers experience nature as diminished and not so different or unfamiliar compared to the city? Figure 2. is a conceptual model that shall serve as a basis for the research question. It shows a sphere of social nature, presumed an entity through the literature on the social construction of nature.
The research question above shall be answered by analysing the correlation between Wapner's idea of technology that renders nature usable (navigation and representation technology) and hikers’ experience of nature. The latter shall be measured on a scale going from time-space compressions’ “placelessness”: in which ‘all distances in time and space are shrinking... everything gets lumped together into uniform distancelessness’ (Heidegger, 1971: 67; Edensor, 2000: 3) to John Wylie’s, Edensor’s and Buijs et al.’s ideas of epiphanies, self-revelations, immensity/anxiety etc, in which
geographical locality is highly treasured. Geographic fragmentation is presumed to be a phenomenon caused by technology. It shall serve as an intermediary variable that produces two different consequences. It is the means through which technology influences the experience of nature and it may be highly or barely felt in the mind of the walker. I shall explore this relationship, but also, once established, thorough attention shall be given to first hand accounts of walkers, in which nature serve as the unit of analysis.
Figure 2: Conceptual Model for Operationalisation
representations navigation tools
Socio-Nature
nature as leisure commodity epiphany immensity self-realisation ++ technology geographic fragmentation -nature as unpredictable wilderness lack of sense of distance placelessnessThe North Downs Way has been chosen as a case study because of its relevance to British hiking. Its close proximity to London means it is historically one of the first areas in the world to gain railway access in the early 19th century. Nowadays, some walk the 157 mile route looking to “escape” an urban routine and others may stroll daily through the landscapes of the Surrey Hills and Kent Downs.
The variety of participants in the ethnographic research aims to reveal potential patterns in technology usage as well as differing types of experiences. The fact that North Downs Way walk is marketed as a place of “outstanding natural beauty” shall be a basis for the introductory discourse analysis, which shall be done using Bryman’s guidelines (2012), and literature by Fairclough (1995 & 2003), both
chapter 3.
further elaborated on in paragraphs 3.1.1 and 3.2.1.
3.1.1. HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL RELEVANCE OF THE BRITISH COUNTRYSIDE
Data on the historical significance of the British countryside was gathered online. It consists of material from the spheres of academic publications, policy documents and media issues. As Bryman writes, ‘a particular set of linguistic categories relating to an object and the ways of depicting it frame the way we comprehend that object’ (2012: 528). Understanding how nature is comprehended shall be achieved by analysing literature related to the imaginaries of British hikers, what it has meant throughout the years to go walking and how technologies and imagery such as paintings and basic navigational tools like the sextant have shaped the image and accessibility of nature.
3.1.2. ONLINE ANALYSIS OF CONTEMPORARY DISCOURSE AROUND THE NDW
This consists of collecting data from websites promoting the NDW. The National Trails website, The Ordnance Survey and Surrey City Council are just some websites to have abundant information on the NDW walk. This analysis of representations of nature and
technology found in literature, social-media and online sources shall be done using a thematic approach. I explore how the walk is represented and promoted with the help of navigation technology and how campaigns for the walk have been produced and perceived. The thematic analysis approach has been chosen in order to collect and interpret the relevant data. It is similar to that developed by Fairclough (2013), and consists of extracting major themes that: 1) occur with significant regularity throughout the sources; 2) are closely related to the research question; 3) bare close similarity to predefined themes from the early stages of the research design. Discourse analysis draws on Foucault’s ideas that ‘linguistic categories frame the way we comprehend objects’ (Bryman; 2012: 528). The vocabulary used in constituting the discourse on the British countryside will create a version of what it is and also reshape its reality. Words such as beautiful, scenic, stunning shall be thoroughly analysed in their meaning and also their recurrence, in order to understand how visions and experiences are shared through words. The analysis follows Bryman’s guidelines (2012: 530) by which: discourse is a topic; language is constructive; discourse is a form of action; and discourse is rhetorically organised. In this sense, this analysis is not an attempt to uncover the reality of the physical landscape of the North Downs Way, but to understand how the area is shaped by
l a n g u a g e : ’ d i s c o u r s e i s a f o r m o f action’ (Bryman, 2012: 530), and performing discourse makes the North Downs Way a particular place. Indeed, it is essential to keep in mind the distinction between material and
semiotic realities (Fairclough, 2013).
3.2.1. MIND-MAP AND STORY COLLECTION A collection of mind-maps shall serve as a way for hikers to express how they experience
nature. This approach is inductive and allows for participants to use their own words in explaining their experience. ‘Instead of looking to the researcher to search for codes, concepts, and categories within the data, [mind]maps allow for the identification of concepts and connections based on how the participant frames their experience’ (Wheeldon & Faubert, 2009: 72). As the authors explain, participants come up with their own concepts (key words) without restrictions and interference of the researcher. But as opposed to simply listing their feelings, mind-maps encourage creating
3.2.. ETHNOGRAPHIC
APPROACH
links, using arrows to show hierarchy, connections and relationships between concepts (see Figure 3.). Concept or mind-maps ‘provide a visual representations of dynamic schemes of understanding within the human mind’ (Wheeldon & Faubert, 2009: 69). There has been much discussion about what defines a mind-map, and as they have traditionally been used within hard sciences, their potential benefit to the humanities may allow for a ‘less rigid definition’ (ibid). Mind-maps permit to gather a vast range of data. As Suckall (2009:1196) writes, the ‘heterogeneity within a community can result in a diverse range of attitudes and perceptions [of the natural world]’.
After briefing the research participants on the demand, they are free to structure their mind-maps as they wish. As such, the briefing was strongly open-ended and focussed on perception (Moore et al., 2012). Data has been collected from seventeen research participants. Five were approached in person along the North Downs Way walk, in which an attempt at an engaging explanation of the research fuelled their interest in participating, the other twelve were contacted via email. In order to remain consistent with a purely inductive approach, participants were not given any elements of a finished mind-map (it was entirely up to them to produce what they wanted). Instead, to ensure they produced something of interest to the research question, they were sent out a
detailed brief. This did not explicitly illustrate the interest in the relationship between technology and the countryside. Instead, in order not to skew the results with the biased hypothesis that technology has a strong influence on hikers’ experience, the term “technology” was not mentioned in the briefing that was given to participants. Instead, it purely demanded a representation of two elements: 1) how participants felt about themselves when walking in nature; and 2) how they felt about the nature they were walking in. Only after having completed their maps and stories were they asked how they interact with technology prior to and during their walks. It was also anticipated that the term inductively appear in certain maps. Analysis of the gathered data was going to require a more sophisticated and formal approach, and identifying categories could prove difficult with such varied data. So, in order to address this, follow-up research was to contribute to clarification. For this, story-telling served as a complementary data gathering technique. Each participant was asked to write a short story in relation to their mind-map in order to give context to the concepts mentioned. Lewis (2011) addresses the potential for storytelling to become more prominent in research. He writes that stories are the only way to express life, identity, self, and the existence of other (2011: 505). Petra Munro Hendry (2007) suggests that ‘to
increase our rigor we need to be more faithful to our relationships and not impose more methods’ (494). And Lewis adds that paying attention to individual stories is a form of ‘resistance to the narratives of instituted power’ (2011: 506).
3.2.2. MIND-MAP AND STORY ANALYSIS
In order to analyse the data found in the mind-maps, stories and follow up questions, it underwent coding. The sample of participants was not sufficient to derive any statistical data. Similar to a thematic approach, the mind-maps were studied in order to extract concepts. Wheeldon (2009) admits there are many ways to analyse mind-maps (or concept-maps) and they often come in many different forms and may not ‘meet the traditional definition of concept maps’ (2009: 75). In this sense, generated data can appear to be an “attractive nuisance” (Miles, 1979: 590). Wheeldon claims researchers may ‘rely on “concept counting” to identify which concepts were identified by participants within the maps and how often’ (ibid). For this analysis, therefore, variables that were inductively produced throughout the research were identified and regrouped into relevant categories. The aim throughout being to recognise patterns in relationships and key-words that appeared with some regularity.
3.2.3. A SHIFT FROM RIGID TO CREATIVE METHODS
Developments in the field of social sciences have acknowledged the subjectivity within studies of nature and technology. In a criticism of empiricist ‘God-like’ views within science - developed in Haraway’s theory of situated
knowledges and Jasanoff’s (1996) relative positioning - and in accordance with Latour’s
understanding of representations, progress in the area of science and technology studies (STS) allow us to accept that technology is inherently everywhere, and a search for scientific truth requires attention to subjective opinions and manners of representation and perception. A terminology shift took place in the 1950s, and inventions formerly named
mechanics became technology. This new term
encompasses a much wider range of phenomena and includes everything from material tools to invisible wavelengths (Nye, 2007; Holden, 2015; Jasanoff, 2004).
Parallel to this, there has been a recent revival of landscape studies. A popular occupation in the interwar era, but that saw a decline in the 1950s and 60s has returned with an emphasises put on the importance of creativity. The ‘static, descriptive morphology of landscape’ of the mid 20th century was deemed too imprecise for the Anglo-Saxons' spatial science (Cosgrove, 2017: 45). ’Recently, and primarily in North America, geographers have sought to reformulate landscape as a concept whose
subjective and artistic resonances are to be actively embraced’ (ibid).
A c o m m o n l i m i t a t i o n t o s u c c e s s f u l ethnographic research is the danger of skewing data as a researcher. As such, being aware of reflexivity and the tendency for the researcher’s presence to play a role in results, is essential. Collected data is often influenced by the relationship between researcher and participant. However, Wheeldon and Faubert suggest that many qualitative approaches in the field of social sciences aim to be ‘explicitly user generated and unsolicited’ (2009: 72). Techniques that encourage spontaneous answers and offer the respondents the opportunity to imagine their own concepts and relationships limits the researcher’s chance for simplification and standardisation of results. Additionally, time constraints had an impact on the number of mind-maps and stories collected. The demographics of research participants was taken note of. It was important to acknowledge that the background, age and gender of respondents varied to some extent. And there was not a sufficient amount of participants to regroup them into categories defined by their background.
The aim is to better understand the ways nature is experienced in contemporary circumstances. The use of technology includes immediate, tangible devices in the desktop data collection. But a broader definition of the term technology is be established in the section on ethnographic research. As such, I abide to the assumption, developed thoroughly by Haraway, that everything we do is inherently technological. The aim is both to shed light on the ways representations shape nature, but also how walking with technology influences our understanding of the countryside. Gaining this knowledge is necessary in order to fuel sensibility in future planning paradigms.
In order to minimise risks taken, all respondents that participated were of legal age. They were asked to fill in consent forms, made aware of the intentions behind the research and the expected audience, and they have been guaranteed full anonymity. The research was conducted with respect to the regulations of the University of Amsterdam’s Ethics Committee.
3.3. LIMITATIONS
3.4. OUTCOMES
3.5. RISK ASSESSMENT AND
ETHICS
4.1.1. OVERVIEW
The British countryside has been of great interest to painters, writers, poets and academics since the sixteenth century
(Cosgrove, 1984). Englishmen share very common imaginaries regarding the significance of the outdoors. Successive economic and political developments throughout history, as well as significant technological innovation have greatly contributed to the shaping of British values regarding the natural world (see Figure 7.). Endeavours embarked upon during
4.1. CULTURAL RELEVANCE OF
THE BRITISH COUNTRYSIDE
c
hapter 4
.
british
hiking and
perceptions
of nature
the years of western colonialism, in which traditional ways of using technology to navigate nature such as ships, compasses, new economic and trade tools, all contributed to the expansion of power over previously undiscovered terrain (Law, 1987). Since the dawn of civilisation in fact, nature and its resources have been utilised for economic and political purposes. Prior to urbanisation, farming and living off local land was the most common occupation in Britain and the rising cities were considered dirty, plague ridden and overcrowded construction sites by those who remained in the villages (Figure 4). The agricultural revolution of the 18th century proved the importance of owning land: it was the primary means of survival and also turned out to be a cause for violent conflict and inequality. Equally, the industrial revolution had major contributions to the ways we see nature: it created jobs in the cities, driving people away from agricultural work and into manufacturing in factories. In turn, it polluted the cities in question and thus made the countryside more appealing to some. Giving birth to the first railway service in the world, the industrial revolution allowed people (wealthy enough to catch the train) to visit the countryside on weekends. Indeed, the railway service used walking as a promotional tool for their locomotives. Advertisement posters from the early 1900s read Ramblers: Walk in
Metro-Land and Country Walks by London Transport
(see Figure 5). The industrial revolution was the precursor to our modern reality in which nature is endangered.
The world’s first public railway appeared in 1825; running between Stockton and Darlington in the Yorkshire district, Railway No.1 marked the beginning of the railway boom of the 1840s. Suddenly, escaping the city via steam locomotive became an exciting and noble activity for the upper classes. In tandem with ongoing colonial exploration by sea, collective dreams of adventure and discovery
Figure 4: Letter My Impressions of Life in the Country.
meant travelling somewhere unknown was a Sunday pleasure for the bourgeoisie.
During colonial rule, the exploration of foreign lands was strongly associated with objectifying nature as a scientific resource, something to be tamed and analysed. Its remoteness and 3
inaccessibility fuelled a desire to conquer the exotic. Objects were retrieved to museums of natural history and put on display as trophies. In the process of discovery, language was, and remains, crucial to the notion of conquering. Labels and names are what transformed objects
into possessions and spaces into places. Place-making is achieved through the attribution of relatable names to undefined spaces. And categorising unknown plants, rocks and animal species makes of them inanimate belongings, ridding them of their own agency (Latour, 1 9 9 9 ) . T h e y b e c o m e r e d e f i n e d b y representational labels. These practices of categorisation and objectification of nature were pillars in founding a Eurocentric vision of the world, and the wild. The study of nature was considered a pure science in which
Collection of posters from the British Transport Museum. From left to right: Country Walks by Austin Cooper x 2; Country Walks
3
by Hans Unger, 1950; All The Year Round by Underground by Charles Sharland, 1910; Ramblers published by the Metropolitan Railway, 1932.
explorers’ were entirely objective. Within this patriarchal discipline, courageous men adopted a so-called ‘God-like’ view of the world (Haraway, 1988), in which nature was the laboratory and everything within it need be dissected (Latour, 1999). The Royal Geographical Society (RGS) of London, founded in 1830, was home to pioneers of such expeditions.
4.1.2. LANDSCAPES
The term “landscape” first emerged in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, meaning ‘a way of seeing’ the outdoors (Cosgrove, 2017).
It was born from the humanist renaissance movement, and its specific ways of imagining space. As for many centuries, landscape had been closely related to the appropriation and domination of space, it was concerned with the ‘survey and mapping of newly acquired, consolidated and “improved” commercial e s t a t e s , i n t h e h a n d s o f a n u r b a n bourgeoisie’ (ibid). ‘In painting and garden design, landscape achieved visually and ideologically what survey, map making and ordnance charting achieved practically: the control and domination over space as an absolute, objective entity, its transformation
into the property of individual or state’ (ibid). Euclidian geometry and linear perspective were used in representing of landscape as they guaranteed the viewer pictorial realism and thus a sense of control. It is a rationalist technique first used to represent the city, and the use of oils and small frames guaranteed easy transport for the wealthy. 4
In huge contrast, what can be observed throughout the end of the 18th century is the emergence of Romanticism, an artistic movement that celebrated the emotional aspects of paintings' subject. The movement was concerned with continual experimentation. And as opposed to copying landscapes using geometrical formulas, the process of representation was considered a transposition. Indeed, it could be defined as an inductive
method of painting. During this period, the representation of the wild became the predilection meeting between self and other. Jon Constable (Figure 2.) and Joseph Turner were the most significant painters of the time. The inductive nature of this method of painting resonates well with the method taken throughout this research: the need for nature for be treated with emotion, both through t h e o r e t i c a l w r i t i n g a n d e m p i r i c a l representation.
4.1.3. IDENTITY
In modern day Britain, identity and sense of belonging has strong roots in the practice of walking. The debate about the significance of the countryside is controversial. It comes across as a space of hegemonic ideas. But
Illustration showing significant periodic policies, major technological advances in navigation, and dominant paradigms regarding
4
perceptions of nature
1600
British Agricultural Revolution
Colonial Rule
2000
Industrial Revolution
Redefining the term Technology
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14
L ongitude A ct17
57
The Se xt ant18
25
Fir st pub lic R ai lw ay19
57
Sputn ik199
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G PS fu lly oper ational prior to urbanisation, nature is indispensable but banal exotic and to be conquered dangerous: for the poor andsick sign of wealth and nobility commodity? escape?
many are silenced, including ethnic minorities and the financially disadvantaged. National sports, for example, are strongly rooted in British identity, and the rural is home to fierce power relations play. Milbourne writes that the British countryside is home to ‘field sports and a sea of white faces’ (Milbourne, 1997). The Countryside Alliance and the Countryside Movement are run by and of interest to the upper middle class, and have dominantly male members. Woods (2007) writes about the myth of the apolitical countryside. He claims that the ‘discourse of rurality’ ‘serves exclusively the interests of the dominant power elites’. And Milbourne (1997) writes about the conflict between ‘green wellies’ and ‘black wellies’ in rural England.
4.1.4. TOOLS
The industrial and technological revolution of the 20th century has contributed to the redefining of the term technology. Tools that were formerly purely mechanical and easily distinguishable from our own bodies and minds became, with great scientific advance, less tangible. The term now encompasses more than just objects: technology is within us, in everything we do (Haraway, 1991; Nye, 2007). The invention of the GPS (Global Positioning S y s t e m ) a s w e l l a s n e w m e a n s o f communication, which make us incessant passive observers of representations of almost
everything, mean that nothing is not technological (Winner, 1980).
The industry that surrounds walking is phenomenal. Everything from high tech clothing to all the navigational gear one could imagine is sold online and in stores. The abundance of apps and recommendation packages that are available to download online is astonishing. But with all this preparation, are we deviating from the original pleasures of exploring nature such as unpredictability and inaccessibility? The British ideal of walking seems closely related to its strong attachement to ideas of urban prosperity and so walking has become somewhat of a social class distinguisher. Britain’s rapid industrialisation appears to have given a sacred meaning to its rural areas.
Having established the cultural significance of the British countryside and explored the controversial history of the meaning of landscape and nature, the following section aims to unpack contemporary language used to refer to the North Downs Way. As we may be facing the novel concept of “the smart countryside”, and also new manners of defining technology, this section analyses the vocabulary used online to promote visits to the
4.2. THE NORTH DOWNS WAY
TODAY
NDW and that address questions such as: How is nature represented to us? How is it made available to us? How does discourse about it bridge the gap between walker and countryside? How does it tame nature, make it less intimidating and more accessible and approachable? It focusses on vocabulary that is used to fuel common imaginaries, ideas, fantasies, understandings and expectations. In the same ways that “discourse analysis identifies the rules which make a text into a fascist text” (Wodak & Meyer, 2009, 17), discourse analysis can be utilised to find the vocabulary which makes text into a sales pitch. Nature comes across as a commodity in numerous publications and online promotions
of the NDW. From cultural and historical scenery to diverse fauna and flora, the countryside’s natural attributes are used to attract tourists and often promote costly subscriptions, reservations and hiking holiday packages.
The North Downs Way is celebrating 40 years of existence in 2018, while the Surrey Hills is celebrating 60 years since its designation as an “area of outstanding natural beauty”. This fuelled a local artist of the area to create posters of iconic locations along the walk inspired by vintage railway travel posters from the 1930s. There is a strong sense of creating business opportunities from the existence of the countryside. A website covering the county
of Kent (url ) has abundant information about 5
the NDW. It boasts an immense variety in historical and cultural sights. The homepage reads: ’The North Downs Way National Trail, the premier route in the South East, runs for 153 miles through the Surrey Hills and Kent Downs areas of outstanding natural beauty’. The nomination of outstanding natural beauty is undoubtedly a reality, however it is used very much as a sales slogan; it is featured on bus shelters, train stations, roadside billboards. It goes on to say the area is home to ‘some of the finest scenery in England’, ’[taking] the traveller through a rich tapestry of heritage and history’. In relation to the biodiversity of the area, the website claims there is ’rich woodland and rare chalk grasslands’, a great ’diversity of flora and fauna’, with ‘rare plants and butterflies’, concluding that ‘there will always be a new discovery or breathtaking view awaiting you just around the corner’. It is ‘scenic’. Similarly, the national trail website (url ) boasts 'beautiful landscape that is rich in 6
heritage’. The website includes tabs labelled: “plan your visit”; “be inspired”; “trail
information”; “trail news”; “feedback”; “add you own information”; “tell people you have completed the trail”; “contact details for experts about the trail”; “trail blog”; “see the trail”; and “all your questions answered”. The
NDW has a page online (url ) emphasising the 7
calmness of the walk despite its close proximity to London and other urbanised areas. ‘Despite going through one of the most built up parts of Britain, it still takes in plenty of quiet open and beautiful countryside’. The site has a celebratory message, claiming it is the NDW’s “40th year of existence”. There is written ‘on this site I have split this walk down into easily manageable stages and included transport options back to the start of the walk, making it easy to walk the path in day stages’. An article in The Telegraph suggests the walk in a compilation of noteworthy outdoor experiences in Britain. It reads:
'a medieval pilgrimage through Surrey and Kent: ‘Walk the UK’s answer to the Camino de Santiago, following pilgrim footsteps along the North Downs Way. This 246km National Trail turns 40 in 2018, though its origins are far older – it approximates the route medieval pilgrims took to Canterbury, and thence to Rome. Starting in Farnham, the Way undulates across Surrey Hills and Kent downs, passing Canterbury’s UNESCO-listed cathedral to finish at Dover’s
https://www.visitkent.co.uk/north-downs-way/ 5 https://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/north-downs-way 6 http://www.northdownsway.co.uk 7
White Cliffs. An 11-night self-guided North Downs Way via Canterbury trip costs from £1,100, including B&B accommodation’
(The Telegraph, 2018) They conclude with contact details required for booking. The hike is repeatedly referred to as a leisure attraction that is to be paid for. The Contours website (url ) offers numerous 8
“holiday walks”. All you have to do is type in your desired location and tailored routes will be suggested for various fares. The idea that the countryside is something to be conquered comes across very strongly.
The Ordnance Survey sells everything from paper maps and smart watches to towels and picnic blankets. Their maps are entitled “A-Z Adventure”, purporting that they cover practically everything there is to be known about the walk. Having achieved the taming of nature to some extent, it is staggeringly as if it has become a commodity. Previously intimidating, unpredictable and frightening aspects of the countryside seem to have evaporated. We have resorted to purchasing the idea that nature can heal us. The preconception that nature brings us freedom from our overly busy urban realities.
It seems as though natural enclosures in the vicinity of cities have witnessed a process of homogenisation. Whether it is our common expectations that create one singular idea and thus reality of the local countryside, similar behaviour in the course of hikes, or governance paradigms that consider the countryside purely that - countryside - without any deviation to the term whatsoever. There is an immense lack in the appreciation of originality within the representations of natural landscapes. It is not a shortage in diverse flora and flora but a sense of blandness to the discourse, nature becomes a stereotype and as if created by the publishers of promotional websites.
Among the seventeen visual and written representations created by regular walkers of the NDW and relating to their experiences of hiking in the British countryside, there were slight differences between those approached outdoors and those having been briefed via email. Having very strategically chosen participants to contact via email and sending out a detailed brief, their mind maps appeared to be more thorough, the content more considered and the revelations more emotional
https://www.contours.co.uk
8
4.3. MIND MAPS AND SHORT
STORIES
(probably due to the lack of embarrassment sometimes caused by face to face encounters). The research method draws on suggestions by Cosgrove (1985), in which ‘individual, imaginative and creative human experience [should be incorporated] into studies of the geographical environment’ (45). He writes, ’in its contemporary humanist guise within geography, landscape is deployed within a radically anti-scientific programme’ (Cosgrove, 1985: 46). The following data collection process is thoroughly creative and expressive of participants’ emotions.
In terms of demographics, all participants were British, with the exception of one German, aged between 19 and 63. They all lived in England and were strongly familiar with the 157 mile walk: ‘my favourite path to the pub’ one participant claimed.
Acknowledgement must be given to the o v e r w h e l m i n g k e e n n e s s w i t h w h i c h participants responded to completing the task. A significant majority of those who were sent the brief came back expressing great gratitude for the liberation that the exercise provided. The topic of walking and personal sensations is apparently somewhat of a taboo in regular conversation. Indeed, by addressing emotions in relation to walking, one easily comes across as excessively spiritual or incessantly promoting of self-help strategies. Participants were enthused by the brief that lacked in constraints and specifically appreciated the
lack of questions addressing satisfaction/ dissatisfaction rates or strategies for change (both very common in surveys).
4.3.1. COMMON THEMES
The coding of the data revealed a number of themes. Themes that emerged throughout the mind-maps and short stories were widespread; some very closely related to time-space compression and the experience of space as diminished and some regarding other ideas entirely. Notions with regular occurrence fell within the following categories: 1) identity; 2) history and heritage; 3) mindfulness and mental well-being; 4) the built environment; and 5) fauna, flora and biodiversity. The themes are regrouped below due to similarities. Having identified the themes and attached to them the relevant vocabulary, the coding process included attributing two different labels to the transcribed data: 1) signs of placelessness, and: 2) signs of wilderness. Due to the inductive nature of the research, the following three paragraphs do not address technology directly; but instead they mirror the topics that were most commonly raised by participants.
Identity and Well-Being
In relation to identity, most participants felt visits to the countryside were an essential part of their mental well-being and connection to their true selves. The most common recurring
notion was that of perspective. It was mentioned by eleven participants (see Figure 8) who all made direct contrast between urban dwelling and the pleasures of nature. Here, there was a common sense of frustration with the social identities that are forced upon us within the urban built environment. Stress, anxiety and boredom were terms that were regularly referred to in relation to the city. To them, nature appears as a type of escape. Respondent L writes about the newfound connection with himself while walking, and how he perceives nature as a place that allows for profound thought: nature is ‘a perfect learning environment - it takes you outside your comfort zone, [it’s a place] where [you] learn well’. He writes about walking providing a ‘sense of adventure and achievement’. When asked what was meant by achievement, the participant spoke about how, with some perspective, our accomplishments in urban, hyper-socialised and professional settings, are in fact trivial and futile. The participant likens the countryside to an unconstrained space, in which there is room to breathe. Far and near horizons make the experience relaxing and inspiring. He used the term ‘levelling’, explaining that nature rebalances the scales of relative importance in life. A very similar observation was made by respondent B who wrote that ‘nature is a reminder of time and [the] inconsequence of work’. It is an environment insulated from the professional
world: ‘purer, [it is a] site above daily minutiae’. Furthermore, he writes, ’without detracting from the purity of the surroundings, [nature offers] an opportunity to use tools and revel in the small mental problems of speed, time and distance’. Escaping this daily minutiae, as he puts it, is the path to true freedom. He continues: ‘walking in the countryside is a forced separation from action and contact. It is self inflicted helplessness, absolution: it is an alibi for freedom from consequences’. Similarly, respondent C claims time slows down in the countryside, and the absence of urban stressors leaves time for life appraisal as well as an irresistible impulse to reflect on one’s life. They claim the countryside allows for a ‘neutral, focused but pressure free interaction eased through a mutual journey.’ It is about the ability to appreciate the real passing of time, and not a skewed version that we may be subject to in the heart of urban connectedness. One respondent writes that walking reconnects us with the real passing of time. In the countryside, ’the natural progression of a journey’s beginning, middle and end encourages progressive conversation. Walking allows for the successive relationship of challenge and response to unfold at the natural pace of activity and relationship. Sharing the endeavour and experience with others, eases discourse side by side and ‘compares favourably with sitting opposite over a coffee’.
