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Abstract: It is claimed that contact with nature and the countryside can benefit young people''s health and wellbeing. There are concerns, however, that not only do young people encounter significant barriers to accessing these resources as part of their leisure experiences, but also they generally have less direct experience of nature. Research into youth leisure activities and their associated cultural dimensions suggests performance and enactment are an integral feature of related youth lifestyles. This paper argues that young people''s engagement with nature and the countryside still remains only partly understood because past studies have not examined these interactions as part of a wider process of developing lifestyles and identities linked to youth leisure activities. Presenting the findings of primary qualitative research involving a group of young people who live in urban and rural areas and who make regular use of countryside space for mountain biking, this paper shows the ways in which young people express their relations to nature and the countryside. By providing a specific focus on young people''s countryside leisure experience within the framework of identity and lifestyle the paper offers a more holistic understanding of how young people interact with the countryside exploring both the distinctive elements of the spaces offered by the countryside to develop symbolic ownership over space and the way in which, through embodied experiences and knowledges, the nature associated with these spaces is given meaning by young people. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

While the politics of recreational access to the natural environment has long been associated with walking, there is growing recognition that other forms of access can, in political terms, be more problematic. One such case is recreational access to inland waters in England and Wales, which has long been dominated by the oppositional politics of anglers and canoeists. Recognising the limitations of conventional evidence-based approaches to policy-making, this paper offers a phenomenological perspective on the politics of water related recreation, suggesting that approaches to the ‘solution’ of access problems may be found by understanding better the lifeworlds of those involved in the debates. This is illustrated by reference to a recent official inquiry into access along inland waters in Wales. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Talks about topics discussed during the annual conference of the Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers in London, England. Recent developments in tourism and leisure; Explanation concerning the term creative tourism; Views related to critical reappraisal of tourism and sustainability.

In this paper we seek to engage with contemporary environmental debates concerning human--nature relations at the everyday level. Our focus is on the domestic or home garden, which we argue is a significant locale for understanding human--nature relations. Secondary empirical data illustrate the growth of gardening and its connections to changes in housing tenure, consumption patterns and the 'commodification of nature' by the garden industry. Primary empirical data on the meanings of home and garden (and gardening activities) are utilised to understand the relations between human agency and contemporary human--nature relations. The findings suggest that a variety of social and economic processes encourage utilitarian and consumerist orderings of nature in gardens. But the meanings of gardens are also structured by personal practices, often reflecting relationships with family and friends, that produce complex and personalised connections with nature that illustrate the ambiguity of human--nature relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the importance of contemporary gardens as leisure sites in the process of homemaking. Reflection of contemporary garden on social relations; Examination of the gender relations depicted in gardens and gardening; Social construction of the home; Presentation of the gendered meaning of gardens.