Environment & Society
Surfacing Tension: Toward a Political Ecological Critique of Surfing Representations
By and , Department of Geography and Environmental Science, Stetson University (December 2008)
Sections: Environment & Society
Subjects: Cultural Studies, Environment And Society, Geography, Culture.
Periods: Contemporary, Geologic Time.
Key Topics: nature , human impacts, representation.
Abstract
Historically, surfing has been perceived as an environmentally conscious endeavor. Some attribute this environmentalism to the ways in which surfing became a manifestation of American counter-cultural political movements of the 1960s and 1970s, although others, like deep ecologists, indicate an inherent environmentalism in surfing, which makes surfing an important tool in developing an ecologically mature ‘self’. The evolution of surf culture, however, presents complexities to these representations; the commodification of surfing introduces contradictions to surfing as ecologically benign. Technological advances, while dramatically changing the face of surfing, have also had significant impacts on the environment. Surfparks, world travel, and the construction of surfboards bring to light not only the complications of an environmentally conscious surfer, but also the complexities which all humans face as ecological actors. Surfing may lead to an ecological ethic, but at what cost to the environment? Using the critical theory of political ecology, this research aims to illuminate the contradictory relationship between representations of surfing and the environment.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-8198.2008.00192.x
This article abstract has been viewed 952 times.
Top 5 related articles
-
Call It Consumption! Re-Conceptualizing Ecotourism as Consumption and Consumptive
By and , Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Duke University
(Vol. 2, July 2007)
Geography Compass -
Cold Monsters and Ecological Leviathans: Reflections on the Relationships between States and the Environment
By , Aberystwyth University
(Vol. 3, February 2008)
Geography Compass -
Environmental Change in Peri-Urban Areas and Human and Ecosystem Health
By , School of Environment and Development, University of Manchester
(Vol. 3, June 2008)
Geography Compass -
The North Sea Fisheries Crisis and Good Governance
By , Governance and Sustainability Programme, Centre for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster
(Vol. 3, March 2008)
Geography Compass -
Crossing Boundaries, Crossing Scales: The Evolution of Environment and Resource Co-Management
By and , Department of Tourism and Environment, Brock University, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University
(Vol. 2, June 2007)
Geography Compass
Top 5 Related Blackwell Reference Chapters
The Production of Nature
It may seem strange to include a chapter on the production of nature in a volume about economic geography. ...
By Noel Castree
The Environment of the City … or the Urbanization of Nature
The question that now begins to gnaw at your mind is more anguished: outside Penthesilea does an outside ...
By Erik Swyngedouw and Maria Kaïka
Postcolonialism, Representation, and the City
Topicality, the essence of good journalism, is perhaps less important for the longer-term perspectives ...
By Anthony D. King
The Immaterial City: Representation, Imagination, and Media Technologies
J.-K. Huysmans's À Rebours (Against Nature) is a fictional study of a certain type of dandy in the latter ...
By James Donald
Representational Practices
Representations of American Indians as stereotypical “others” have circulated widely in Europe, the Americas, ...
By Pauline Turner Strong