Story Maps, COVID-19 Lockdowns, and Young People’s Relationships with Nature
Topics: Human-Environment Geography
, Qualitative Methods
, Geographic Information Science and Systems
Keywords: children’s geographies, COVID-19 lockdowns, nature, story maps, qualitative GIS
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Tuesday
Session Start / End Time: 3/1/2022 02:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 3/1/2022 03:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 46
Authors:
Corey J. Martz, University of Denver
Rebecca L. Powell, University of Denver
Bryan Wee, University of Colorado Denver
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Abstract
Young people's relationships with nature—what nature is, where nature is found, and why nature is meaningful—are profoundly impacted by the contexts of their lives, including people and places they interact with routinely. We asked young people in Lafayette, Colorado to share what, where, and why nature is meaningful in their lives by creating story maps; they used existing web applications (e.g., Esri ArcGIS StoryMaps) to combine images, web maps, and descriptions about specific nature places they selected on Google Earth. Since story mapping was ongoing during the onset of COVID-19 lockdowns, we compared story maps from two similar groups of young people who completed the same story mapping activity under two different circumstances: one group in-person before and the other group virtually during the lockdowns. In doing so, we explored whether (and how) an abrupt change in access to interactions with people and places impacted young people's relationships with nature. For the “During Group”, their concepts of what nature is—their knowledge, worldviews, and material consciousness of nature—were contextualized by their nature places, more of which were located closer to Lafayette compared to the “Before Group”. Why nature was meaningful to young people also potentially changed; e.g., the During Group more often described their needs to experience fulfillment and/or for lasting emotional associations with nature places located closer to Lafayette. Young people’s changing circumstances, environments, and needs highlighted their dynamic relationships with nature and, in turn, demonstrated the need for more location-specific approaches like story maps for understanding such socio-spatial relationships.
Story Maps, COVID-19 Lockdowns, and Young People’s Relationships with Nature
Category
Virtual Paper Abstract
Description
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