Reconfiguring urban environmental education with 'shitgull' and a 'shop'. Issue 10 (26th November 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Rautio, Pauliina; Hohti, Riikka; Leinonen, Riitta-Marja; Tammi, Tuure
• Is Part Of: Environmental education research. Volume 23:Issue 10(2017)
• Page Start: 1379
• Page End: 1390
• Publication Date: 2017-11-26
• Subjects: Child–nature relations -- child–animal relations -- interdependence -- posthumanism -- urban environment; Environmental education -- Research -- Periodicals; 333.7207
• DOI: 10.1080/13504622.2017.1325446
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1350-4622

Abstract

Abstract: The worry over urban children having lost their connection to nature is most often addressed with either initiatives of reinserting the 'child back to nature' or with evidence aiming to prove that the worry is unfounded to begin with. Neither approach furthers our understanding of child–nature relations as continuing transformation of both 'child' ('human') and 'nature'. The objective of this paper is to redirect attention from evaluating connectedness of two separate units to mapping mutual emergence of children and their surroundings in relation to each other. The question asked is : Of what kind is environmental education beyond connectedness of 'child' and 'nature'? The aligned theoretical approach, (critical) posthumanism, will help us to elaborate a premise for environmental education according to which humans and their nonhuman surroundings do not exist as independent of each other. The empirically grounded events discussed in this paper are named 'shitgulls' and 'shops'. These events map mutual emergence of child and nature, evidencing the need for environmental education to understand itself as a relational phenomenon.