The Unsettling Outdoors - (Rgs-Ibg Book) by Russell Hitchings (Paperback)

About the Book

"If we want to understand the likelihood of future societies having regular beneficial contact with living greenspace, we should examine how outdoor experiences are handled by people in their everyday lives today. As a means of exploring this wager, The unsettling outdoors spends time with a series of groups who may be subject to a process of environmental estrangement that is often barely perceptible but which could easily become more widespread. By talking with those who have ended up running on indoor treadmills, those confronted by the lack of showers at summer music festivals, those who seldom consider the spaces outside their city offices, and those faced with the intimidating prospect of a living domestic garden, this book reveals the importance of this process and provides a wealth of suggestions about the effective study of everyday life."--

Book Synopsis

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

From the Back Cover

'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

If we want to understand the likelihood of future societies having regular beneficial contact with living greenspace, we should examine how outdoor experiences are handled by people in their everyday lives today. As a means of exploring this wager, The Unsettling Outdoors spends time with a series of groups who may be subject to a process of environmental estrangement that is often barely perceptible but which could easily become more widespread. By talking with those who have ended up running on indoor treadmills, those confronted by the lack of showers at summer music festivals, those who seldom consider the spaces outside their city offices, and those faced with the intimidating prospect of a living domestic garden, this book reveals the importance of this process and provides a wealth of suggestions about the effective study of everyday life.

Review Quotes

"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)

About the Author

Russell Hitchings is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at University College London, UK. He has studied everyday life in a variety of contexts around the world and has published widely on qualitative methods, energy consumption, climate adaptation and nature experience.