Romantic experiences of 'pure nature' damage the environment

Consumers conjure romantic notions of nature through practices that often harm the environment, according to an academic study of surfing culture? recently published in the Journal of Consumer Research.

Dr Robin Canniford of the Department of Management and Marketing and Avi Shankar of the University of Bath identified the surfing community as an example of people who consider themselves as living close to nature. In order to ascertain how consumers assemble romantic notions of nature, Drs Canniford and Shankar ?lived and breathed surfing culture, exploring surfers? home, work and travel environments, with the aim of gaining a deeper understanding of how notions of nature are created and consumed?.

?Patagonia?s ?footprint chronicle? scheme for instance, enables consumers to assess the environmental impact of supply chains and production resources?

Despite desiring romantic experiences of nature as wild, isolated, and untouched, surfers experience a variety of contradictions to these romantic ideals. Oftentimes, experiences of nature are crowded, fraught with aggression and involve cultural institutions such as fashion, sport and subcultures. In response, surfers use three kinds of ?purifying practices? to restore romantic experiences of nature.

Firstly consumers ?mask? objects or procedures that clash with the romantic notions of nature. ?Many surfers seek to hide or ignore the scripts, rules and technologies that indicate that nature and culture are intimately connected. Similar masking practices are used in other contexts. Canniford explains that ?organizers of Wild-West re-enactments, for example, hide cars, trucks and portable toilets from the event in order to create a raw version of nature that fur-traders and gold miners might have experienced in centuries previous?. However, in many instances, these practices harm natural environments further by sweeping damaging objects and events under the carpet.

Perhaps less damaging to nature are consumers? attempts to purify nature by purging certain cultural resources and social tensions from their experiences. According to Robin, ?methods of purging include boat charters and private resorts that limit numbers of consumers at certain locations so as to preserve an unspoiled experience of nature. By masking or purging cultural objects or other people from encounters in nature, consumers can temporarily preserve experiences of nature as an Edenic escape from urban life and culture?.

However, these strategies can also impact negatively on the environments that consumers enjoy as Dr Canniford explained, ?though the Maldives are frequently considered as an archetypal island paradise, the masking of consumers? waste products there has led to whole islands being swamped by trash that is now polluting the crystal blue sea that tourists travel so far to encounter. Similarly, ?Acts of verbal or physical violence against other surfers have become a common method of alleviating crowded experiences of nature?. By purging other consumers from nature, either through acts of violence or by privatizing locations, experiences of nature are increasingly fastened to disciplinary legislation and commercial structures, neither of which improve overall enjoyment of the natural environment?.

Fortunately, Canniford and Shankar also found sustainable kinds of purifying practices in which consumers seek to redress the potential damage done by their activities. ?Some surfers are acutely aware of the fragility of nature, such that they desire increasingly ecologically friendly consumer technologies. Improved demand for these resources offers a rich seam of marketing practice in which outdoor equipment manufacturers and tourism service providers become purity suppliers that help consumers to consume nature in less damaging manners. Patagonia?s ?footprint chronicle? scheme for instance, enables consumers to assess the environmental impact of supply chains and production resources? explains Dr Canniford. The study suggests that policy makers and businesses should look to such examples to improve the ways in which they use the natural environment in business practice.

Source: http://benews.unimelb.edu.au/2012/romantic-experiences-of-pure-nature-damage-the-environment/

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