Modern Western Culture (MWC) is based in a materialist and mechanistic ontology that has marginalized spiritual relationality with the natural world. Awe of the Earth once maintained respectful relations between humans and Nature, where shared community existence was a primary concern. Through the rise of the MWC, reverence for the spirit of the Earth has gradually been lost and has altered the way humans situate themselves in the world. Many claim that as the divide between humans and Nature grows, significant barriers to thoughtful and sustainable ways of living have emerged, and reconnecting, or healing this divide is essential in the movement toward environmental sustainability. To address this divide, this research uses the reflective and iterative processes of action research together with feminist post-structural analysis to examine barriers to human-Nature relations at a spiritual level. It explores dominant discourses that act on middle years students and determine what is possible for student-Nature relations in a public school setting. The dominant discourses are embedded in three main themes: role of the city, social acceptance, and technology. Discourses within each theme have been deconstructed, identifying how they are reproduced or disrupted, the implications of adopting the discourses, and how alternatives may be encouraged in school to support spiritual relations with Nature. This research takes a small step toward broadening the possibilities of how people relate with Nature by including spiritual relations with Nature, and begins to erode a clearly identified barrier to achieving sustainability.

Learning about people’s views on nature and their attitudes towards national parks is important for the sustainable development and success of national parks. However, the relationship between these two topics is a relatively under-researched area. This study sets out to investigate this relationship for visitors of Harz National Park, Germany. Visitors’ views on nature, conservation measures in the national park and the relationship between those are analysed through data that was collected with an online survey during a period of two weeks in March 2022. Respondents favour a concept of human-nature interdependence but sometimes contradict themselves concerning the place of humans in nature. Harz National Park and conservation measures are accepted by respondents. Results show that knowledge about the importance of bark beetles is an area in which the national park can improve its information campaigns. A small to moderate but statistically significant relationship exists between views on nature and attitudes on conservation measures. This provides a basis for future continued research of Harz National Park, as well as in different contexts.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-07T15:09:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.PDF: 2014874 bytes, checksum: 0ab44d979977ec4ba40d89fbddf82398 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-06-19 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This work is proposed to develop a study of the relationships between man and nature in a Phenomenological Geography approach seeking theoretical and methodological alternatives witch promote new perspectives of teaching for the student. To do so, a survey of the life of primitive peoples was done in order to get more intimate relations with the Nature, as well as, aspects of contemporary man s contact with the natural world. Based on the conceptions of geographicity in Eric Dardel, the study of the Earth was analyzed in a perspective that exceeds the spacephysics elements of the objective science, the geometric and measurable space. We sought to understand the world as a consequence of an intersubjective phenomenon, in which the relations of the human body with the Earth assume a decisive character for the understanding of a teaching-learning process turned to the space experienced in life. From the notions of spatiality, we tried to discuss the construction of the space in a phenomenological vision. For the inquiry, the qualitative methodology was used due to its documentary and bibliographical character. The essential assumptions in the teaching of Geography present themselves still filled up with a distant reality of the immediate spatial relations of student. In this way, the present research aims to contribute both to strengthen the discussions that are locked around theoretical and methodological issues in this area of education, but also to the Geography in school be associated with an education conception that aims at the formation of individuals able to relate to the Nature in a physical perspective, waking up so, other ways to see the Earth highlighting the original dimension of human existence. / O presente trabalho se propôs a desenvolver um estudo das relações do homem com a Natureza numa abordagem da Geografia Fenomenológica buscando alternativas teóricas e metodológicas que promovam novas perspectivas de ensino para o aluno. Para isso, foi feito o levantamento da vida de povos primitivos no intuito de buscar suas relações mais íntimas com a Natureza como também, aspectos do contato do homem contemporâneo com o mundo natural. Baseado nas concepções de geograficidade em Eric Dardel, o estudo da Terra foi analisado numa óptica que ultrapassa os elementos físico-espaciais da ciência objetiva, do espaço geométrico, mensurável. Procurou-se compreender o mundo como conseqüência de um fenômeno intersubjetivo, no qual as relações do corpo do homem com a Terra assumem um caráter decisivo para a compreensão de um ensino-aprendizagem voltado ao espaço vivido. A partir das noções de espacialidade, buscou-se discutir a construção do espaço na visão fenomenológica. Para a pesquisa foi utilizada a metodologia qualitativa devido seu caráter documental-bibliográfico. Os pressupostos essenciais no ensino da Geografia apresentam-se ainda preenchidos de uma realidade afastada das relações espaciais imediatas do aluno. Desta forma, essa pesquisa tem a finalidade de contribuir tanto para fortalecer as discussões que se travam em torno de questões teóricas e metodológicas desta área de ensino, como também para que a Geografia na escola se associe a uma concepção educacional que objetive a formação de indivíduos capazes de se relacionarem com a Natureza numa perspectiva corporal, despertando assim, outros sentidos ao ver o planeta Terra destacando a dimensão originária da existência humana.

Wetlands are defined by New Zealand's Resource Management Act 1991 as "includ[ing] permanently or intermittently wet areas, shallow water and land water margins that support a natural ecosystem of plants and animals that are adapted to wet conditions" (RMA 1991). Over ninety per cent of New Zealand wetlands have been lost or modified. Several conservation groups composed of volunteers have formed to protect the few remaining areas. These wetlands and their conservators serve as an interesting study into human-nature relationships because of the precarious state of the ecosystems and the dedicated, local volunteer groups that form around them. I explored the relationship between the two through the 'soft systems tradition', which places importance on a human constructed "system of interest" (Oreszczyn 2000, p.109) in order to answer three research questions: How can the relationship between members of the wetland conservation groups and the wetlands they preserve be described; What 'triggers' people's participation and involvement in local environmental groups dedicated to wetland preservation and restoration; How do the groups advocate for wetlands and does the government play a role in this advocacy? Using cultural models (Kempton et al. 1995), I argued that definitions and representations of nature are contested. Notions of place and dwelling, of actor-network theory (Cloke and Jones 2002), and of enclosure/restoration (Watts 2004, Elliot 1986), help to explain how people form their representations of nature within wetlands. Social capital theory (Putnam 2000) helped explain participants' involvement in wetland groups. Participants were involved in the wetland protection groups in order to express personal values, skills and identity through the group (Bishop and Hoggett 1986). Most individuals had a high sense of agency, and joined a wetland protection group because they believed that collective action is more effective than individual action (Taylor 2000, Horvath 1999). Groups that meet regularly and frequently, such as the Travis Wetland Trust, have more cohesive inter-personal bonds and individuals are more committed to the group than groups that meet infrequently (Lawler et al. 2000, Lawler 2001, 2002). This connection between group activities and positive emotion (Lawler 2002) explains why most members of the Travis Wetland Trust identified group involvement as the most important aspect of their involvement. In contrast, Otipua Wetland groups' members, who are divided between the Otipua Wetland Charitable Trust Board and the Friends of the Otipua Wetland, were more likely to name restoration or service as their primary reason for involvement in the group. Advocacy was considered part of group action, although it was not officially included in either group's objectives. Individuals believed they advocated in three ways: through education activities, communication regarding the wetland and through the restoration of the work itself. Individual advocacy translates into group advocacy, since the groups are viewed as vehicles for furthering individual concerns, and acting as a group gives a better chance of achieving results (Horvath 1999). The government played a role in both groups, and all parties maintained a positive working relationship with local government. A cooperative relationship with governments is essential for increasing public awareness of wetlands (Horvath 1999).

This study examines the framing of environmental policies within two military organisations;the Swedish Armed Forces and the United States’ Department of Defence. Additionally, key similarities and differences between the two were described and discussed, as well as which possibilities and challenges each organisation faces moving forward. By using a two-part method consisting partly of a content analysis performed through the chosen theoretical framework of Human Nature Relationships (HNR), along with Carol Bacchi’s policy analysis tool ‘What’s the problem represented to be’ (WPR) when examining both organisation’s respective sustainability reports from 2020, underlying problems were identified and analysed from a critical environmental perspective. The results show that the two policy documents were framed seemingly differently, where the SAF derives their sustainable efforts from the UN Sustainable Development Goals with these being clearly integrated into the operations internal goals, and the DoD mainly mentions sustainability in relation to a bigger picture of cost efficiency. Despite these differences, at their core the organisations both show signs of upholding environmental worldviews which place humans as more valuable than nature, which can be identified through the recurring priority of fulfilling military interests and thereby perceiving sustainable efforts as important, but inevitably, less than. Therein, the main challenge for both organisations stems from the task of balancing differing interests – military interests contra the needs of nature. Possibilities here arise partly from already existing developments, on part of the SAF, and from financial resources on part of the DoD. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of these aspects along with recommendations for future research.