Abstract
This chapter briefly reintroduces themes from Chapter 1, biophilic affinity with, and need to feel related to, nature. Two case studies follow that find memory and imagination supportive of meeting biophilic needs. The first explores young people playing at an adventure playground. Here, trees and spaces in and around them cued development of young people’s den play and imaginative scenarios, spaces separate from home worlds and everyday social relations, providing refuge and places to commune with nature. The second piece of evidence describes young people’s reflections on the benefits of having planted a tree and finds they gain wellbeing from their sense of acting on behalf of nature. In the context of climate change, tree planting children are more likely to reimagine past tree planting as a beneficial solution to this ecological crisis and frame future planting as important to it.
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- 1.
Most evidence collected came from young people aged 10 or 11 years. This may be the most common age when they visit Fort Apache and had freedom to access it independently. It might also indicate that this age group particularly responded to the playful research methods .
- 2.
Chi-squared test producing a p value of 0.02.
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Goodenough, A., Waite, S. (2020). Natural Sources of Biophilic Wellbeing. In: Wellbeing from Woodland. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32629-6_9
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