Becoming Connected with Nature: Developing the Practice of Connecting with Nature through Practical Bricolage

• In Event: 30610 - Environmental Values, Knowledge, and Politics

Abstract

This paper examines the practice of connecting with nature as a path to caring for the environment. It is based on a 5-year ethnographic project at a nature organization in Toronto, Ontario that facilitates nature programs for children, adolescents, and adults. The paper asks: What leads people to engage in the practice of connecting with nature? The paper finds that people engage in the practice of connecting with nature through a process of practical bricolage that combines nature’s materiality and the culture of nature connection. To explain and elaborate this finding, the paper engages with the materialist/idealist debate and the sociology of becoming and it develops a framework for the co-constitution of the material and cultural and applies one variant of the practical bricolage concept. The paper also highlights how the practice of connecting with nature is not equally distributed and discusses how access to this practice can be understood as part of advancing sustainability. Practically, the paper demonstrates that a consistent relationship with nature over time, rather than single life-changing experiences, leads people to take interest in the practice of connecting with nature and helps people learn to care for nature.

Author

• Tyler J. Bateman, University of New Mexico