Nature is just around the corner. Exploring experiences along the way of everyday walks

Abstract

With a growing interest in the potential sustainability and health benefits of walking and human-nature relations in urban areas, researchers have pointed out a need to consider the everyday settings people move around in. This study focuses on the perspectives of a walker along the way of everyday walks and how experiences shape human-nature relations. Based on a diary-photo-interview study with people living in Gothenburg, Sweden, experiences along everyday walks are presented. Analysis of the results show how routines and familiarity of walks play an important role in the perspectives and experiences along the way of everyday walks. Changes and incidental experiences in the surroundings can affect the perspectives along walks, especially in dynamic processes of seasons, weather, and animal and plant life. However, encounters and experiences along the way are processed through imagination and in relation to everyday life, to what has been, what is, and what could be. The paper concludes with a discussion on the role of the habitual and imaginative along everyday walks and how these roles shape people's relation to the surroundings and with nature.