This study aims to expand and enrich the research on the social gap regarding wind power development. We look into reasons for the malaise that people experience when confronted with wind power projects and propose that aspects of the Romantic era still prevail in and influence how humans relate to the world today. We show that the human relation to nature and technology is influenced by Romanticism providing one additional explanation for the social acceptance of wind power that has not yet been addressed in research. This is researched through a qualitative, exploratory multiple-case design that focuses on exploring personal stories and emotions about people’s relation to nature, technology and wind power. This resulted in the discovery of several paradoxes in people’s thinking, a nature paradox and a technology paradox which meet in the wind power debate. Our findings indicate that the malaise around wind power can be further understood by these paradoxes. Ultimately, people’s final decision on accepting wind power comes down to Romantic thinking versus Enlightenment thinking, in which the latter dominates.

In today’s digitalised society we spend a lot of time indoors, kids included, and not as much time outdoors in nature. Thoughts that might appear because of this include what children’s relation to nature looks like and what we as teachers can do to improve this relation. The purpose of this study is therefore to contribute with knowledge about teachers’ thoughts and use of outdoor education, and how they view pupils’ relation to nature based on their outdoor education. The method used in this study was to conduct interviews with five different teachers about their work with outdoor education, along with their thoughts and views on it. A thematic analysis was used to extract different themes from the teachers’ interview answers. This analysis resulted in six different themes covering teachers’ thoughts and outdoor education. The results show that outdoor education often consists of group-based activities with a focus on practical work where many senses are activated and stimulated. According to the teachers, the way that they work with outdoor education also contributes to a more positive relation between pupils and nature, by improving their interest, but also by giving a better understanding of the interaction between humans, animals and plants, as well as our connection to them. Based on these findings, it is important that teachers try to use more of this kind of outdoor education to help develop and improve the pupils’ relation to nature, while ensuring a productive and healthy environment. / I dagens digitaliserade samhälle spenderar vi mycket av vår tid inomhus, även barnen, och inte lika mycket tid ute i naturen. Tankar som kan komma upp på grund av detta är hur barns relation till naturen ser ut och vad vi som lärare kan göra för att stärka denna relation. Syftet med denna studie är därför att bidra med kunskaper kring lärares tankar och användande av utomhusundervisning samt hur de ser på elevers relation till naturen utifrån sin utomhusundervisning. Metoden som användes för studien var intervjuer med fem olika lärare kring deras arbete med utomhusundervisning och deras tankar och syn kring det. Intervjuerna transkriberades och en tematisk analys användes för att ta fram olika teman i lärarnas intervjusvar. Denna analys resulterade i sex olika teman kring lärares tankar och utomhusundervisning. Resultaten visade att utomhusundervisning oftast innebär arbete i grupp med fokus på ett praktiskt arbetssätt där många sinnen aktiveras och stimuleras. Detta sätt som lärare arbetar med utomhusundervisning på bidrar, enligt lärarna, även till positivare relationer mellan elever och naturen genom ökat intresse samt förståelse och känsla för samspelet som finns mellan människor, djur och växter. Utifrån det som framkommit ur denna studie är det viktigt för elevers relation till naturen att lärare försöker att använda sig mer av utomhusundervisning, med förutsättning att de jobbar på det sätt som beskrivs.