Identifying and resisting the technological drift: green space, blue space and ecotherapy
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Identifying and resisting the technological drift: green space, blue space and ecotherapy Ed Lord1 · Michael Coffey1
© Springer Nature Limited 2019
Abstract There has been a growing interest in recent years into the health and well-being benefits of natural ‘green’ and ‘blue’ spaces. This theoretical paper presents a critical review of the proposed ways to operationalise these benefits for mental health. Following the social theories of Ellul and Bohme—in which technology is defined as a system of rules and rationality rather than devices and hardware—we propose that a process of ‘technological drift’ occurs when a body of evidence is put into practice in human activities (operationalised). We identify a technological colonisation of nature, in which nature itself is assimilated into a technological niche to act as a ‘technical solution to a technical problem’. Examples of this are the use of medical language like ‘dose’ and ‘prescription’, the attempt to separate effect mechanisms and pathways and the professionalisation and division of labour. Technological drift in nature exposure and health is congruent with a wider efficiency culture that reduces nature to a resource for human use. In conclusion, we propose that nature exposure could be not just an adjunct to healthcare systems but also disruptive to them in a positive and emancipatory way. Keywords Mental health · Ecotherapy · Green space · Nature · Technology · Jacques Ellul
Introduction Evidence has been accruing in recent decades for the beneficial effect that exposure to nature has on human health and well-being (Hartig et al. 2014; Frumkin et al. 2017; Bloomfield 2017). The experience of viewing, passing through and actively * Ed Lord [email protected] Michael Coffey [email protected] 1
Public Health, Policy and Social Sciences, College of Human and Health Sciences, Swansea University, Singleton Campus, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK Vol.:(0123456789)
E. Lord, M. Coffey
participating within so-called ‘green’ and ‘blue’ space has been positively connected with multiple indicators of both physical and mental health. Frumkin has argued that this is a necessary corrective to the previous medical focus on environments as containers of risks and hazards to health, such as natural disasters, radiation and toxins (Frumkin 2001). This trend has also been notable in popular culture, with multiple books—including Richard Louv’s ‘Last Child in the Woods’, Richard Mabey’s ‘Nature Cure’ and Florence William’s ‘The Nature Fix’-, media coverage of health practices such as ‘cold-water swimming’ and the adoption and deployment of new pseudo-technical terms such as ‘Nature Deficit Disorder’. The health and nature research is presented with a heterogeneous selection of terminology, including ‘green space’ (Conniff and Craig 2016; Bell et al. 2014) and ‘blue space’ (White et al. 2010; Bell et al. 2015)—referring, respectively, to land and water areas identified as ‘natural’ to varying extents and distinct from ‘grey’ urban and industrial spaces. A wider a
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