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The Unsettling Outdoors
Environmental Estrangement in Everyday Life

Russell Hitchings (Author)

9781119549154, Wiley

Paperback / softback, published 8 July 2021

176 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1 cm, 0.255 kg

"In this perceptive, original and timely intervention, Russell Hitchings shows that the potential benefits of greenspace use will not be realised without consideration of how it interacts with the practices of everyday life. Distinguished by its crystal-clear prose, The Unsettling Outdoors also provides a passionate defence of the interview method in the social sciences."
—Lesley Head, Professor of Geography, University of Melbourne, Australia

"Russell Hitchings' revealing interviews with office workers, recreational runners, garden owners, and festival campers show how distinctions between controlled indoor environments and 'the great outdoors' are enacted in practice. The result is a book that promises to transform long-standing debates about relations between people and the plants, trees and microbes with which they live."
—Elizabeth Shove, Professor of Sociology, Lancaster University, UK

"With a down-to-earth style, Hitchings' work embodies urban geography at its best – rooted in creativity, reflexivity, theoretical insight without dogma, and a deep attentiveness to the entanglements of human and beyond-human worlds. The book is not only a valuable resource for researchers and students in geography, planning and the built environment, but also a fascinating and engaging read."
—Sarah Royston (reviewing in Buildings & Cities)

How is it that, in the course of everyday life, people are drawn away from greenspace experiences that are often good for them? By attending to the apparently idle talk of those who are living them out, this book shows us why we should attend to the processes involved.

  • Develops an original perspective on how greenspace benefits are promoted
  • Shows how greenspace experiences can unsettle the practices of everyday life
  • Draws on several years of field research and over 180 interviews
  • Makes new links between geographies of nature and the study of social practices
  • Uses a focus on social practices to reimagine the research interview
  • Offers a wealth of suggestions for future researchers in this field

Series Editors’ Preface viii

Acknowledgements ix

1 A Wager and a Strategy 1

2 Taking an Interest in the Everyday Lives of Others 25

3 Forgetting the Outdoors: Inside the Office 47

4 Avoiding the Outdoors: On the Treadmill 71

5 Succumbing to the Outdoors: In the Garden 96

6 Embracing the Outdoors: At the Festival 120

7 Conclusion 145

Index 164

Subject Areas: Geography [RG]
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