Cultural Sets Shape Adult Conceptualizations and Relationships to Nature

The variability of nature and the nature construct have complicated interpretations of empirical evidence from nature-based health studies. The challenge of defining nature exposure for purposes of methodological standardization may encompass constructs beyond vegetated landcover. This study offers a new construct for defining ‘nature exposure’ that considers cultural sets and nature familiarity. Focus group discussions across the United States (N = 126) explored the concept of what constitutes the relationship to nature. The participant diversity included regions, cultural demographics, cumulative nature experience, and everyday nature exposure. Mixed methods of semi-structured discussion and a photo exercise that prompted nature connectedness allowed for data triangulation and the detection of contradictions between approaches. Individuals conceptualized nature in ways reflecting highly personal and differentiated experiences, which defied consensus toward a single nature construct. The group scoring of photo imagery showed consistent high and low levels of nature connectedness with respect to wildness and outdoor urban venues, respectively, but diverged in the assessment of nature within the built environment. Everyday nature exposure significantly differentiated how groups conceptualized and related to nature imagery. This result may indicate an unmet biophilic need among groups with low backgrounds of nature exposure. The contrasts between the discussion content and the observed reactions to nature imagery showed the value of using mixed methods in qualitative research.

Window dressing: possibilities and limitations of incremental changes in solitary confinement

Background In light of mounting evidence of the physical and psychological harms associated with solitary confinement, many correctional systems, state legislators, courts, and even international human rights bodies are increasingly recommending and implementing reforms to mitigate the harms of solitary confinement, if not abolish the practice entirely. In this piece, we examine three specific infrastructural changes to solitary confinement conditions and practices implemented in Washington state prisons with such harm minimization goals in mind: (1) building so-called “nature imagery rooms” to play videos of outdoor spaces, (2) eliminating punishments for self-harm, and (3) conducting daily cell-front wellness checks. Results Drawing on 183 in-depth qualitative interviews with both staff working in and people imprisoned in solitary confinement units conducted in Washington state restrictive housing units in 2017, we find that these three reforms not only resulted in limited successes but also generated new conflicts. Institutional logics such as deprivation, risk-management, and responsibilization ultimately impeded even the most modest attempts to mitigate the inherently harsh practice of solitary confinement. The limits of these reforms are due in part to individual choices made by people imprisoned in solitary confinement and staff working in these units, as well as the larger cultural norms that shape life in restrictive housing units. Conclusions Incrementalist reforms aimed at softening the environment of solitary confinement may actually serve to increase the strain and stress experienced by people confined to and working within them. Even the most well-intentioned reforms, like those attempted by the Washington DOC, should be scrutinized in order to determine if they are producing the desired outcomes, or instead, reproducing a different, but nonetheless damaging set of harms to people imprisoned in solitary confinement. Further, even well-intentioned reforms are often stymied by the underlying institutional logics of restrictive housing spaces.

Effects of Biophilic Nature Imagery on Indexes of Satisfaction in Medically Complex Physical Rehabilitation Patients: An Exploratory Study

Objective: Exposure to nature has been shown to influence various dimensions of human experience in the healthcare environment. This mixed method study explores the effects of the presence of biophilic, nature-based imagery on patient perceptions of their hospital room and aspects of their experience in rehabilitation. Background: In settings where patients have high degrees of medical acuity and infection control is a major concern, exposure to the benefits of real nature may be precluded. This is also true in many older healthcare facilities which were not designed with salutatory nature exposure in mind. In these settings, the presence of nature imagery may provide benefits which positively impact patient experience. Method: Seventy-six physical rehabilitation patients on a medically complex/cardiopulmonary rehabilitation unit filled out questionnaires assessing their perceptions of their room and various indexes of patient satisfaction. Data were collected from 47 patients in enhanced room containing nature imagery and 29 patients in standard rooms which served as controls. Results: Scores on the Environmental Assessment Scale (EAS) indicated a significant difference between experimental and control group in the rating of their rooms ( p = .0071). Ratings of quality of room, quality of stay, quality of sleep, and overall care trended in the direction of the hypothesis but were not significant. Data from qualitative questionnaires supported the results of the EAS. Conclusion: We conclude that the presence of biophilic nature imagery in the hospital rooms had a significant effect on patients’ room ratings and positively influenced indexes of patient satisfaction.

JONATHAN PITKIN (b. 1978)Feather-Small and Still (2010)

This chapter addresses Jonathan Pitkin’s Feather-Small and Still (2010). Pitkin was commissioned to make a setting of this evocative poem by Sophie Stephenson-Wright, following its commendation in a prize competition for young poets. Its subject is that mysterious bird, the nightjar. The composer has succeeded admirably in capturing the text’s intriguing, distinctive flavour, responding to its nature imagery and heightened language with great sensitivity. Vocal lines are tellingly clear and simple, and it is left to the piano to amplify and illustrate the words to haunting effect, with solo passages bridging the gaps between vocal fragments, always colouring and enriching the sound world. The poem is a villanelle, a classic form in which repetitions of the first and third lines recur throughout. The composer has not adhered strictly to the format in his music, but, by subtle brush-strokes, he manages to preserve traces of reverberation, and his fluent, cohesive musical style enables him to expand and contract textures, often leading off into fresh territory. Though tightly constructed, the piece flows naturally and should prove enjoyable to perform. The voice part is especially suitable for a young singer, and not at all taxing.

Cultural Dilemma of The Arab Woman Expressed through Nature Imagery: An Ecocritical Study of Fadia Faqir’s Pillars of Salt

The Arab community is essentially a patriarchal one with a history of women being subjected to various kinds of afflictions and oppression under cultural, religious and societal laws. Though there is a collective consciousness now regarding the position of the Arab woman in the Arab world, with significant progress being made to emancipate and empower them, much needs to be done still. Set in the mid-20th century Jordan, Arab Anglophone author Fadia Faqir’sPillars of Salt portrays the tragic plight of Arab women at the hands of the traditional patriarchal Arab communities of Jordan. Nature plays a significant role in Faqir’s narrative wherein much of the miseries faced by the women characters are conveyed through rich nature imageries and analogies. This renders the novel the identity of an eco-fictional work and provides scope for analysis based on the ecological approaches as perceived in Emerson’s Nature to the more recent theory of Ecocriticism formulated by William Rueckert. This paper explores an ecocritical approach towards the position of women in the Arab society as expressed through profound eco-comparisons, imageries and analogies in Fadia Faqir’s Pillars of Salt.