"Living in Harmony with Nature" is one of the most pervasive themes in our society. This trope informs marketing campaigns, development goals, movie script, and architectural trends. But what does it mean to live in harmony with nature? How does this ideal conflict with another strong current in Western culture, which is to manage and control nature for human benefit? How can it be achieved given our experience of being dominated by a sometimes harsh nature, and our use of technologies and other achievements of modern civilization? This research presentation from the Association for Consumer Research 2014 conference offers a post-human analysis of consumers’ relationships with nature.

1. fresh ideas.
Joachim Scholz
Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, CA
Jay Handelman
Queen’s University, Kingston, ON

2. Living in Harmony with Nature
A Post-Human Analysis of Consumers’ Relationships with Nature

3. Our mission is to … build a
future in which humans live in
harmony with nature
World Wildlife Fund
“
”

4. We call for holistic and
integrated approaches to
sustainable development that
will guide humanity to live in
harmony with nature
Rio +20: United Nations Conference on
Sustainable Development (2012)
“
”

8. Harmony with
Paradoxical
relationship
with nature
nature
Control
nature
Dominated
by nature

9. PREVIOUS RESEARCH ON “NATURE”
Paradoxical
relationship
with nature
Romantic ideologies of nature
inform consumption practices
and consumer identities
Arnould and Price 1993; Dobscha and
Ozanne 2001; Thompson 2004;
Thompson and Coskuner-Balli 2007;
Scholz 2012
Problematizing unreflective use
of romantic ideologies of nature
Cronon 1996; Tumbat and Belk 2011
Material nature’s role in reproducing
romantic experiences of nature
Waitt and Cook 2007; Canniford and Shankar 2013

10. PREVIOUS RESEARCH ON “NATURE”
Paradoxical
relationship
with nature
Romantic ideologies of nature
inform consumption practices
and consumer identities
Arnould and Price 1993; Dobscha and
Ozanne 2001; Thompson 2004;
Thompson and Coskuner-Balli 2007;
Scholz 2012
Problematizing unreflective use
of romantic ideologies of nature
Cronon 1996; Tumbat and Belk 2011
“Mother Nature” welcomes
her children with open arms?
➛
Technology and
civilization disrupt
harmony with nature?
➛
Material nature’s role in reproducing
romantic experiences of nature
Waitt and Cook 2007; Canniford and Shankar 2013

11. How do consumers achieve feeling in
harmony with nature, given their
experience of a sometimes
dangerous and threatening nature?
➛
How do consumers combine
technology with their pursuit of
harmony?
➛

12. POST-HUMAN LENS
✤ Meanings are not fixed, but derive from a
assemblage of heterogeneous actors (Bettany and Kerrane
2011; Delanda 2006; Epp and Price 2010; Miller 2010; Thomas, Price and Schau 2013)
✤ Material forces of nature can “impede or block the
will and designs of humans [and] also act as quasi
agents or forces with … tendencies of their
own” (Bennett 2010)
✤ Distributed agency: No single actor can unilaterally
shape the assemblage according to its will (Jensen 2003)

13. ETHNOGRAPHY
✤ 10 months engagement with
hiking community
✤ 8 over-night back-country hiking
trips (September to June)
✤ 2,500 photos
✤ 140 pages of field notes
✤ 60 hours engagement periods
✤ 19 depth interviews
✤ Archival data of Backpacker
magazine

14. FINDINGS
✤ Theme 1:
Escaping
civilization
✤ Theme 2:
Dealing with
material
dangers
✤ Theme 3:
Meanings of
technology

15. ESCAPING CIVILIZATION
✤ Nature/civilization dualism
✤ “Being at one with nature” through escaping
civilization
✤ Contradiction: More technology necessary the
more one ventures into “real nature”

16. Albert: “Yeah, just going to these places where there’s
no evidence of civilization, where I can turn in a 360
degree circle and not see a single building, a single car,
that’s when I feel being at one with nature.”

17. “Real nature”
is sacred…

18. Samuel: “It was definitely the
most I’ve ever been out of
civilization. You have to hike to
the spot where there’s no
water. You have to have these
winterized tents and
winterized sleeping bags, so
that you don’t get cold. […]
There was definitely a lot more
survival tricks than anything
I’ve ever done before.”
“Real nature”
is sacred… and dangerous

19. DEALING WITH MATERIAL DANGERS
✤ More nature, less civilization: Hikers seek out
and embellish physical dangers as evidence
that they have “left civilization behind”
✤ More civilization, less nature: Hikers seek to
escape the dangers of “real nature” and long
for a safer, managed, “civilized nature”

21. Evelyn:
“Everything
that could
go wrong
just went
wrong. It got
really bad.
I wasn’t that
happy by
the time I
was there,
but I think
it’s really fun
after. Yeah, ‘I
survived’”

22. Yasser: “Typically you wouldn’t
do it… Why would you put
yourself in a place of danger
if you don’t have to do it? But
now that I’m forced to do it, I
was excited to do it, because
it looks fun.”
Evelyn: “It feels like they should organize
something so you can cross it. It’s nice [that it
is] untouched, but it just feels like it’s unsafe.”

23. MEANINGS OF TECHNOLOGY
✤ Rejecting and masking technologies
✤ Embracing technologies because they allow
engaging with nature in the pursuit of
harmony

24. Bonnie: “I completely
rely on other people
for technology.
Because I sometimes
completely reject it.
Even though I use it, I
struggle in buying it
myself. Because I
would love to be able
to do all this without
technology. I always
have a knife. I don’t
think I consider that
technology.”

25. James’ hiking poles were problematized because they
destroy the local flora and scratch rocks, but later used
by all members when the lower light conditions and a
more challenging terrain made walking more difficult.

26. Technologies are a visual reminder of the struggles hikers
had to engage with in order to get to this spot. The “right”
technologies emphasize that harmony with nature is found.

27. DISCUSSION
✤ Harmony
with
Nature
✤ Dynamics
between
material
and
cultural
resources

28. MATERIALITIES SHIFT MEANINGS
Knife
Power bars
Hiking Poles
GPS
Symbols for domination of nature

29. MATERIALITIES SHIFT MEANINGS
Knife Symbols for pursuit of harmony
Power bars
Hiking Poles
GPS

30. Harmony with nature is achieved not
through separating from civilization
when entering an intrinsically
harmonious nature, but through
engaging and struggling with nature.
Harmony with nature is achieved
not outside of civilization, but
because of civilization.

31. Technology / Civilization
(Romantic) Nature
Romantic
Ideologies
Harmony
through
purging of
betrayals
Waitt and Cook 2007;
Canniford and Shankar 2013
Utilitarian
Ideologies

32. Romantic
Ideologies
Utilitarian
Ideologies Material Natures
Technology / Civilization
Harmony
emerges from
engagement

33. thank you.
Joachim Scholz
Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, CA
Jay Handelman
Queen’s University, Kingston, ON