On the ‘Emotionality’ of Environmental Restoration: Narratives of Guilt, Restitution, Redemption and Hope

Abstract

This paper presents a moral–emotional critique of environmental restoration, through discussion of narratives of redemption. The importance of ‘redemption’ vis-à-vis other environmental discourses rests with its capacity to unpack how, why and in what circumstances the idea of ‘putting something back’ for nature exerts a hold on the popular imagination. This paper thus examines the ethical and emotional experiences bound up in restoration discourses, to identify the motives deployed to confront shame and an associated guilt, and achieve restitution. In turn, the paper also offers new insights into the value (and appreciation) of restored nature.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Jon Anderson, Paul Cloke, Richard Cowell, Paul Milbourne, and the two anonymous reviewers for their comments on earlier versions of this paper. Thanks are also extended to all those at the Eden Project, National Forest Company, and Walden Woods Project who generously donated their time during the research placements. This doctoral research was supported by a Postgraduate Studentship (+3) award from the Economic and Social Research Council [award number PTA-030-2005-00680].

Notes

¹ The Eden Project, located in the former Bodelva china clay pit near St Austell, Cornwall, UK, is an educational charity (owned by the Eden Trust), and is presented as a ‘living theatre of plants and people.’ The landscape of Eden is composed of a Humid Tropics (Rainforest) Biome, a Warm Temperate (Mediterranean) Biome and an Outdoor Biome; alongside the Core, Eden's exhibition and learning centre. The site opened in 2001.

² The National Forest was conceived in the UK in 1987 by the then Countryside Commission; and the National Forest Company was established by Government in 1995. The idea of the National Forest was born in a programme with sister projects the Community Forests—there was a view that there should be a national exemplar of multi-purpose forestry in the heart of the country. The National Forest extends over 200 square miles, and spans the English counties of Staffordshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire.

³ The Walden Woods Project and the Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods (Massachusetts, USA) was established in 1990 to preserve the global literary, historical and environmental significance of Walden Woods (the legacy of Henry David Thoreau and Walden, 1854), and encourage environmental stewardship and responsibility.

⁴ The distinction between shame and guilt echoes that of ‘debt’ and ‘trespass’ in alternative translations of the Lord's Prayer (Atwood, 2008), such that debt (shame) and trespass (guilt) may be ‘spiritual debts and/or trespasses. They are, in fact, sins: God will forgive the sins we've committed in proportion as we ourselves forgive those sins committed against us’ (Atwood, 2008, p. 45). Ecological redemption, therefore, can be read as seeking absolution (from sin) in restored nature.

⁵ I will leave this term here for the time being, as it supports the point being made, but on the whole, ‘original’ is a term I wish to avoid—it is a dubious concept to use within an environmental context, not least because nature is not static; landscapes are at varying states of development, with varying ‘origins.’

⁶ There is a growing literature based on sociological and psychological studies of the experience of restoration, motives of volunteers, and emotional aspects and effects on participants (Burke & Mitchell, 2007; Grese et al., 2000; Miles et al., 2000; Schroeder, 1998, 2000; Vining et al., 2000), as well as on community (Jordan, 2003; Leigh, 2005), and the politics in restoration (Light & Higgs, 1996). To date, however, there has been limited research on ‘audience’ responses.