[This page is under construction and will be available at the Nature Connections conference in University of Derby on 16th July 2026.]
Theoretical framework for Ingram and Still’s proposed conference abstracts:
We are ordinary people, living ordinary lives, and I think we adopt a critical realist perspective, believing there is a single reality, but that reality is complex and our ways of finding out about it are limited and open to interpretation. We believe that the present is strongly built on the past. In some places, such as Cerne Abbas, this is more obvious than in others. This is the case everywhere – even in rural towns like Nailsea (See: https://blog.neilingram.co.uk/2025/01/19/climate-change-and-the-air/). We carry the past with us – in our personal histories, in the history of the place and in the impact on the planet.
We think that an attachment to a place is accompanied by meaning-making, and we develop a personal centre of meaning, to rationalise our sense of attachment. We think that nature-connectedness is a stage beyond this – to lower the separation we feel between ourselves and the environment. ‘This is place is our place, and we are part of its environment. The environment’s glories are our glories, and its problems are our problems’.
The development of place attachment, place meaning and nature connectedness develop through a series of experiences, both “bottom up” and “top-down”.
Bottom-up experiences are the sight, sounds, taste, feel of the place. The wind in our hair, the rain on our face, the smell of the wood. They are what Raymond et al call ‘fast meanings’. Top-down experiences filter through local context, cognition, knowledge, story-telling, history, beliefs and attitudes about the physical, social, or personal qualities of the place. They are what Raymond et al call ‘slow meanings’, that develop identity, attachment and memories.
We also believe that a third way that a sense of place can develop is through intuition, although this is a less well-researched area. “Intuition involves using experiences or cues to make quick decisions about what to do in the present without conscious reasoning” (Counted et al (2024)). Intuition can help individuals sense the inherent meaning of a place, that can lead to a sense of attachment.
Not all drivers of a sense of place are visible and material. Spiritual ties to a place, which becomes ‘sacred’ can be of deep significance for many people. These can be associated with religious sites and natural environments (Diehm, 2022). These can be explored as ‘the sacred in a place’, ‘social activities in sacred places’ and ‘spiritual realities in a place’ (Counted et al., 2024).
The development of a sense of place and nature-connectedness, should, we believe, lead to a sense of action. New affordances emerge, as we connect with place and nature (Raymond et al., 2017). These may be instrumental, seeing opportunities for social and economic benefits. This is one of the defining characteristics of human evolution. As we ascribe more intangible emotional, symbolic, and spiritual meanings, we might discover pro-social ambitions, to conserve, maintain and heal broken landscapes.
Sources:
Beery, T. H., & Wolf-Watz, D. (2014). Nature to place: Rethinking the environmental connectedness perspective. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 40, 198-205.
Counted, V., Meagher, B., & Cowden, R. (2024). The Nature of Spiritual Ties to Place: A Conceptual Overview and Research Agenda. Ecopsychology, 16(1), 60-70. https://doi.org/10.1089/eco.2022.0078
Diehm, C. (2022). Connection to Nature and the Case for Deep Ecology. ETHICS AND THE ENVIRONMENT, 27(2), 59-81. https://doi.org/10.2979/ethicsenviro.27.2.03
Raymond, C. M., Kyttä, M., & Stedman, R. (2017). Sense of place, fast and slow: The potential contributions of affordance theory to sense of place. Frontiers in psychology, 8, 1674. https://public-pages-files-2025.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01674/pdf