TY - CHAP

T1 - Social Media and Experiences of Nature

T2 - Towards a Plurality of Senses of Place

AU - Olafsson, Anton S.

AU - Møller, Maja S.

AU - Mattijssen, Thomas

AU - Gulsrud, Natalie M.

AU - Breman, Bas

AU - Buijs, Arjen

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - The chapter focuses on people’s experiences of natural places and changes in their sense of place through the use of social media. It explores how social media are linked to senses of place and experiences of nature from a social–ecological–technological systems perspective. This is illustrated through four empirical cases representing specific people–place–tech systems, i.e. systems where different social, ecological and tech contexts interact. From a system perspective, those couplings are integrated parts of people’s experiences of nature that bridge virtual and physical worlds, thereby facilitating and communicating cognitive, affective and behavioural social-ecological interactions. These interactions foster novel individual and co-constructed meanings of place and thus plural senses of place; they can also mobilise people around shared meanings of place that are used to question dominant views. Thus, it is argued that social media can mediate and proliferate plural meanings of place, leading to new conceptualisations of senses of place.

AB - The chapter focuses on people’s experiences of natural places and changes in their sense of place through the use of social media. It explores how social media are linked to senses of place and experiences of nature from a social–ecological–technological systems perspective. This is illustrated through four empirical cases representing specific people–place–tech systems, i.e. systems where different social, ecological and tech contexts interact. From a system perspective, those couplings are integrated parts of people’s experiences of nature that bridge virtual and physical worlds, thereby facilitating and communicating cognitive, affective and behavioural social-ecological interactions. These interactions foster novel individual and co-constructed meanings of place and thus plural senses of place; they can also mobilise people around shared meanings of place that are used to question dominant views. Thus, it is argued that social media can mediate and proliferate plural meanings of place, leading to new conceptualisations of senses of place.

KW - nature experiences

KW - social media

KW - sense of place

KW - place meanings

KW - social–ecological–technological systems

KW - urban forest

KW - urban foraging

KW - volunteered geographic information

KW - rewilding

U2 - 10.1017/9781108769471.024

DO - 10.1017/9781108769471.024

M3 - Book chapter

SN - 9781108862554

SP - 271

EP - 284

BT - Changing Senses of Place

A2 - Di Masso, Andrés

A2 - Raymond, Christopher M.

A2 - Williams, Daniel R.

A2 - Manzo, Lynne C.

A2 - von Wirth, Timo

PB - cambridge university press (cup)

CY - Cambridge

ER -