Wayfaring: Making Lines in Landscape
WAYFARING: MAKING LINES IN LANDSCAPE A Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Alan Hockley Department of Sports Management, Faculty of Design, Media & Management, Buckinghamshire New University, Brunel University June, 2011 This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with its author under the terms of the United Kingdom Copyright Acts. No quotation from the thesis and no information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement Abstract The interpretation of landscape, the significance of walking and the relationships that exist between them are rarely considered or critically examined in much of leisure research or outdoor pedagogic practice, despite their significance within other fields of academic study such as anthropology and cultural geography. This research seeks to explore how a variety of landscapes are perceived, how cultural and social interpretations influence this perception, and whether these interpretations may be re- envisioned by walking, or wayfaring, as an alternate way of making understandings and meanings with landscape. In exploring the disparate interpretations surrounding landscape, the concept of place and its specificity comes to the fore, as does the importance of the relationship between walking and how we make sense of place. A mixed methodological approach is employed to explore this relationship, combining auto-ethnography, phenomenology and the practice of walking itself. Utilising written notes, photographs, and recordings of personal observations and impressions made whilst on a combination of single and multi-day walks in a variety of locales both familiar and unknown in England, a series of reflective narratives were produced.
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