Devanne, Anne-Sophie (2005) Mountain walkers and experience of space. An analysis of the relationship to space, through walking in the Pyrenees. PhD thesis Sciences de l'Environnement, ENGREF.
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Abstract
This thesis mainly focuses on an understanding of mountain walkers, visitors to the mountain, relation to space. I have made the assumption that, through the varied meanings people attribute to objects and places, they get involved in a process of self-discovery and, beyond, in the definition of a collective identity. To carry out my research I have chosen a concept, the experience of space, and, overall, have implemented a method relevant with at once a phenomenological anchorage, the situation of visit and the mountain walking practice. This method uses interviews in three stages and a participant observation. The analysis of the material underlines that mountain walkers build a six-dimensional experience of space: social, erudite, aesthetic, bodily, with an aspect of play and "gathering". All these dimensions (and the way the participants express them) are both varied and strongly interdependent. Then, various phenomena are examined to explain this construction, around the spatiality and the temporality of walkers' relation with space. The analysis finally shows that the social dimension of the walkers' experience is the one omnipresent. The participants recognize themselves as part of a social group (with specific codes and values). The importance of the group and of those who are walking together (as a group) is also underlined. From the concepts of rite and wayfaring, it is thus possible to show to what extent mountain walking is a source of social bonding; to what extent, through objects like map and path, the walkers' experience also relies on the intertwining of the material and the immaterial as well as time and space.
| Item Type: | PhD Thesis (PhD) |
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| Thesis Supervisor: | Donadieu, Pierre |
| Date: | December 2005 |
| Board of examiners: | Donadieu, Pierre and Debarbieux, Bernard and Larrère, Raphaël and Briffaud, Serge and Le Floch, Sophie and Millier, Claude |
| Ecole Doctorale: | ED 435 AGRICULTURE, ALIMENTATION, BIOLOGIE, ENVIRONNEMENTS ET SANTE |
| Discipline: | Sciences de l'Environnement |
| Collection (Fonds): | ENGREF ENGREF |
| Institution: | ENGREF |
| Subjects: | 9. Sciences of Economy, Management and Society |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Humanistic geography, Sociology, Walking, Tourist, Inhabitant, Mountain, Experience of space, Social interaction, Semi-structured interview, Pyrenees., Géographie humaniste, Sociologie, Marche à pied, Touriste, Habitant, Montagne, Expérience de l’espace, Interaction sociale, Entretien semi-directif, Pyrénées. |
| ID Code: | 1462 |
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| Deposited By: | Anne-Sophie Devanne |
| Deposited On: | 02 March 2006 |
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