This book explores how natural landscapes are linked to positive mental wellbeing. While natural landscapes have long been represented and portrayed as transformative, the link to mental wellbeing is an area that researchers are still aiming to comprehend. Accompanying five groups of people to rural Scotland, the author considers individual, external and group motivations for journeying from urban environments, examining in what ways these excursions are personally and socially transformative.
Far more than traversing mere physical boundaries, this book illustrates the new challenges, experiences, territories and cultures provided by these excursions, firmly anchored in the Scottish countryside. In doing so, the author questions the extent to which peoples own narratives link to the perception that the outdoors are positively transformative and what indeed does have the power to influence transformation.
Grounded in extensive qualitative research, this contemplative and ethnographic book will be of interest and value to students and scholars of the outdoors and its connection to wellbeing.
INTRODUCTION
Engaging in autobiographical reflexivity to begin with, the introduction will set up a familiar scenario of nature disconnection and the inevitable draw to spending time within nature. However, this introduction will introduce new and un-covered themes. These themes are due to my time spent within the field aiming to understand real experiences of leaving urban environments in pursuit of natural spaces and the positive transformation they are believed to offer. The most significant difference is real life participation, being within and understanding from individuals perspectives. This book will offer full qualitative accounts. The introduction will establish some of the pre-concelS‚
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