22 min
Ep#8 - Phenomenology Beyond Colouring-In: A Geography Podcast
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- Earth Sciences
In this episode, Ben is joined once again by Dr Pauline Couper, Associate Professor of Geography and Associate Head for the School of Humanities at YSJU, to discuss the concept of ‘phenomenology’. We explore some of the ways in which philosophers and geographers have attempted to theorise and inject a sense of our bodily existence and experience into accounts of human-environmental interactions. We explore the contributions of humanist geography, as well as the application of ideas around perception in the work of continental philosophy, and consider some of the exciting and critical ways in which today’s scholars are extending and adding to our understanding of body-world relations.
Below, for those who are interested, are some links to relevant readings mentioned in conversation and that further flesh out the concepts / topics discussed...
Key Reading #1: The 2007 article “Leaving nothing but ripples on the water: performing ecotourism natures” by Gordon Waitt and Lauren Cook is mentioned by Pauline in discussion as a useful applied example of how scholarship on outdoor human activities might incorporate and consider bodily experiences. Published in the Social & Cultural Geography and available online here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14649360701529782
Key Reading #2: Pauline’s 2017 paper in cultural geographies, flagged in the episode, sees her apply the insights of Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology to the subject of small-boat sailing and the experience of ‘being in nature’. “The embodied spatialities of being in nature” is available online here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1474474017732978
Further Reading: Geographer Eden Kincaid has developed a range of resources explaining and discussing key concepts and debates in geography as part of a series of collated twitter threads (see the website: ‘wtf is…geography!?’). Being as they work on phenomenology in their own research, the thread on this subject is a great way into the concept. Available online here: https://twitter.com/WTFisGeography/status/1572962871042273280?s=20&t=XW5MYaGWLJjfcgl8tkvsDQ
Further Reading: The article by Drik van Eck and Roos Pijpers from 2017, ‘Encounters in place ballet’, published in Area, is one that Pauline has found works well when teaching students about phenomenological ideas and how they might be applied by geographers to understand spatial experience (in this case, the experience of parks by older people). Link here: https://rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/area.12311
(C) 2022. Produced / Edited by B. Garlick
In this episode, Ben is joined once again by Dr Pauline Couper, Associate Professor of Geography and Associate Head for the School of Humanities at YSJU, to discuss the concept of ‘phenomenology’. We explore some of the ways in which philosophers and geographers have attempted to theorise and inject a sense of our bodily existence and experience into accounts of human-environmental interactions. We explore the contributions of humanist geography, as well as the application of ideas around perception in the work of continental philosophy, and consider some of the exciting and critical ways in which today’s scholars are extending and adding to our understanding of body-world relations.
Below, for those who are interested, are some links to relevant readings mentioned in conversation and that further flesh out the concepts / topics discussed...
Key Reading #1: The 2007 article “Leaving nothing but ripples on the water: performing ecotourism natures” by Gordon Waitt and Lauren Cook is mentioned by Pauline in discussion as a useful applied example of how scholarship on outdoor human activities might incorporate and consider bodily experiences. Published in the Social & Cultural Geography and available online here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14649360701529782
Key Reading #2: Pauline’s 2017 paper in cultural geographies, flagged in the episode, sees her apply the insights of Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology to the subject of small-boat sailing and the experience of ‘being in nature’. “The embodied spatialities of being in nature” is available online here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1474474017732978
Further Reading: Geographer Eden Kincaid has developed a range of resources explaining and discussing key concepts and debates in geography as part of a series of collated twitter threads (see the website: ‘wtf is…geography!?’). Being as they work on phenomenology in their own research, the thread on this subject is a great way into the concept. Available online here: https://twitter.com/WTFisGeography/status/1572962871042273280?s=20&t=XW5MYaGWLJjfcgl8tkvsDQ
Further Reading: The article by Drik van Eck and Roos Pijpers from 2017, ‘Encounters in place ballet’, published in Area, is one that Pauline has found works well when teaching students about phenomenological ideas and how they might be applied by geographers to understand spatial experience (in this case, the experience of parks by older people). Link here: https://rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/area.12311
(C) 2022. Produced / Edited by B. Garlick
22 min