Theorising learning and nature: post-human possibilities and problems

Abstract

In their predominantly theoretical turn to the material, post-humanist feminists often focus on ‘nature’, arguing that the nature/culture binary has collapsed and that fixed distinctions between human and non-human spheres no longer hold. Conversely, outdoor learning sees nature as a space where humans act and has been more concerned with empirically based studies of practice than with theory. The purpose of this paper is twofold: to use post-human ideas to advance theoretical understanding of outdoor learning and to evaluate post-humanism's analytic capacity by putting it to work with empirical data on outdoor learning. Drawing on two studies, one on young people in jobs without training and one on young people living in an area designated as one ‘of outstanding natural beauty’, the paper explores young people and their everyday outdoor learning: engaging with animals landscape and elements. Post-human perspectives help to uncover the vibrancy and power of this learning, but they are less useful in exposing the ways it is shaped by social inequalities. Whilst post-humanism reveals that inequalities are not fixities and cannot themselves totally suppress the vital materiality of these young people, these social inequalities remain a challenge to the affirmative aspirations of post-humanism.

Keywords:

• nature
• outdoor learning
• post-human
• young people

Acknowledgements

The jobs without training study was funded by the European Social Fund, Learning and Skills Council and Connexions. The Exmoor study was funded by The Exmoor National Park Authority and the Institute for Health and Community, Plymouth University. Thanks to the anonymous reviewers for their useful comments.