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ABSTRACT
If the desert was long perceived as a hostile and inhospitable territory, it was gradually conquered during the 20th century by the practice of sports and leisure activities. The aim of this article is to study these practices in the Saharan zone and, in particular, the genealogy of these practices in relation to speed.
The first period, in the continuity of modernity thinking, was characterized by a time of acceleration of sports practices. The practice of desert driving and extreme sports are obviously the most symbolic of this period. Placed under the influence of a ‘technological paradigm’, these practices reflect the expression of ‘One-Dimensional Man’ in the language of sport.
Today, these sports practices are more or less in decline, and new corporal and leisure practices are definitively joining a logic of slowness a more intimate projection of the body in nature and sustainable leisure. The development of Saharan hiking, the revival of camel riding, and sand bathing are evidence of this trend.
In these new Saharan practices, slowness can be analysed as an emerging experience (Andrieu Citation2017b) of belonging to the World and Nature. The depth of the body is rediscovered through a body ecology that translates the awakening of a body placed in a life-giving situation at the heart of nature. This exhalation of an existential resourcing requires a spatial support, a counterpart of ‘corpospatiality’ which must be analysed through a second use or diversion. The slowing down of the pace of activities then makes it possible to envisage new ways of being in the world and interacting with it. These new bodily experiences in the desert can finally be seen as the expression of a renewed ecosophy understood as wisdom based on communion with nature, with others and with oneself.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1.. All translations from German into English are by the author. Quotations in English are taken from the original texts where this source is mentioned in reference. Otherwise (Anglo-Saxon reference translated into French), the translations into English are also by the author.
2.. All quotes concerning the Paris-Dakar Race are extracted from the website ‘http://www.dakardantan.com/citations.php’ dedicated to the supporters of this motorsport event.