Research project
Diversity Outdoors: Embodied Ethnoracial Inequalities and Outdoor Recreation in Europe
Through a comparative analysis of participation in outdoor recreation in Europe, this project seeks to investigate how social inequalities are embodied. Outdoor recreation – such as hiking, climbing, swimming, but also birdwatching and camping – is as a pivotal arena where racialized encounters and practices manifest. The emerging grassroots outdoor movements that challenge these discourses provide a unique opportunity to better understand the embodiment of ethnoracial inequality on a sensorial level.
- Duration
- 2025 - 2029
- Contact
- Jasmijn Rana
- Funding
-
European Research Council
Ethnoracial Embodiment
This project undertakes a comparative ethnographic study of ethnoracial embodiment in outdoor recreation in Western-Europe, while asking the questions: What are the effects of ethnoracial embodiment on sociocultural diversity in outdoor recreation? How are bodies constituted as in or out of place in outdoor recreation in Europe? How is diversity in outdoor recreation influenced by local, national and transnational discourses and imaginations? What is the role of ethnoracial affinity and opposition in experiences of participating in, and contesting the status quo of outdoor recreation? Adressing these questions aims to generate critical knowledge of embodiment of ethnoracial inequality.
Sensory Ecologies
The central objective is to gain insight in the commonalities and socio-cultural distinctiveness of how ethnoracial inequalities are embodied, experienced, and contested across Europe. The concept sensory ecologies will be used as an innovative analytical approach to gather insights in the relations between body, environ and discourse and investigate the social and cultural aspects of ‘feeling’ in or out of place. Integrating the sensorial and political dimensions of embodiment, it will address racial embodiment and its intersections with other axes of difference, such as class, gender, religion and ability. This will help reveal when, how, and why racialization is experienced, expressed, and contested in outdoor recreation in Europe.
European Comparison
The approach is both multi-sited and multi-scalar, addressing the local, national and transnational levels of ‘diversity in the outdoors’. The project compares three countries with emerging identity-based outdoor groups: the Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom. It analyzes these outdoor groups and activities, but also outdoor recreation policies and discourses between local movements, national- level organizations, online communities, and transnation collaborations.