Moving beyond the romantic biases in natural areas recreation

Abstract

A distinctly American Romantic view of nature emerged during the 1800's. It was motivated by concerns that core American values were being degraded by the replacement of the wild frontier with industrialization and urbanization, and by concerns that a shallow and materialistic society was being created by the rationalism and utilitarianism of modernism (Oelschlaeger, 1991; Oravec, 1996). Romanticism celebrates wil, untrammeled nature as a holy temple where one finds God, learns moral lessons, and retreats from civilization. Nature has value because it is beyond human control, undisturbed and orginal, and because it has endured the test of time and presumably would continue doing so if humans just left it alone (i.e., nature knows best). Humans only soil this quality of nature. Humans cannot improve upon what anture produces.

Citation

Hull, Bruce R. 2000. Moving beyond the romantic biases in natural areas recreation. Journal of Leisure Research. Volume 32. Issue 1. 2000. pp. 54-57