Open AccessTransformation of Experience: Toward a New Relationship with Nature
Author(s) -
Clayton Susan,
Colléony Agathe,
Conversy Pauline,
Maclouf Etienne,
Martin Léo,
Torres AnaCristina,
Truong MinhXuan,
Prévot AnneCaroline
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
conservation letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.153
H-Index - 79
ISSN - 1755-263X
DOI - 10.1111/conl.12337
Subject(s) - transformative learning , conceptualization , situated , sociocultural evolution , context (archaeology) , environmental ethics , biodiversity , sociology , diversity (politics) , natural (archaeology) , political science , ecology , geography , biology , pedagogy , philosophy , archaeology , artificial intelligence , computer science , anthropology
Despite decades of awareness about the biodiversity crisis, it remains a wicked problem. Besides preservation and restoration strategies, one approach has focused on increasing public concern about biodiversity issues by emphasizing opportunities for people to experience natural environments. In this article, we endeavor to complicate the understanding of these experiences of nature (EoN). Because EoN are embedded in social and cultural contexts, transformative or new EoN are emerging in combination with societal changes in work, home, and technology. Policies that acknowledge and accept a diversity of culturally situated EoN, including negative EoN, could help people reconnect with the complexity and dynamics of biodiversity. A new conceptualization of EoN that encompasses diverse experiences and reflects the sociocultural context could help to stimulate a broader transformation in the relationship between society and nature, one that better integrates the two spheres. Such a transformation is necessary to more effectively address the biodiversity crisis.