| The author critiques a form of environmentalism in the literature of outdoor recreation and education influenced by deep ecology and/or the land ethic. Antimodernism and the nature-culture dichotomy expressed in wilderness, it is argued, limit teaching social and environmental responsibility, specifically with regards to place attachment. Connections between symbols of dominant Canadian identity, outdoor recreation, and the landscape are examined. Taking a phenomenological hermeneutic position, Ingold's (2000) dwelling perspective is explored as an alternative, ecological approach to environmental thinking. Central themes of landscape, identity, and place are seen as interrelated and mediated through skill. The importance and influence of tools and technology as well as story and myth on the processes of place attachment are discussed. Outdoor recreation and education, it is argued, can be a forum for attentive place building and a method for incorporating and communicating values of certain places within one's identity and to a larger community. |
