Play—the making of deep outdoor experiences

Abstract

To be outdoors and involved in adventures concerns the movement between safety and risk, the familiar and the unfamiliar. Deep involvement in activities and the seriousness found in play are essential in Bildung. Findings in this paper stem from ethnographic fieldwork conducted in a kayak community, between late autumn 2006 until the fall of 2008, with the aim of describing learning processes and experiences made outdoors. This paper examines a Norwegian kayak community, and uses two cases to illuminate the relationships between flow, peak experience, play, Gebilde and Bildung processes. The meanings produced by kayakers are seen in the light of ontological play. More particularly the possible relationship between Bildung and play is investigated by exploring how two situations can be seen as autotelic activities. The paper concludes that situations of lost control and of autotelic play can foster existential experiences that are more connected with the humanistic ideal of Bildung than with instrumental learning. A shift of focus from instrumental learning to play and adventure is seen as vital in the Bildung processes.

Keywords:

• Adventure
• Bildung
• Gebilde
• Friluftsliv
• Kayak
• Play

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Professor Gunnar Breivik and Professor Gunn Engelsrud, the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on earlier drafts of this paper, and Gideon Steinberg and Thomas Pindard for their help with improving the language.