MURAL - Maynooth University Research Archive Library



    Swimming as an accretive practice in healthy blue space


    Foley, Ronan (2017) Swimming as an accretive practice in healthy blue space. Emotion, Space and Society, 22. pp. 43-51. ISSN 1755-4586

    [img]
    Preview
    Download (897kB) | Preview


    Share your research

    Twitter Facebook LinkedIn GooglePlus Email more...



    Add this article to your Mendeley library


    Abstract

    Cultural geographers are increasingly interested in research on water and water-based practices as sites of study. Parallel literatures on therapeutic landscapes, especially emergent work on healthy blue space, have also begun to explore emotional geographies. This paper is an empirical study of outdoor swimming in Ireland with a specific focus on health and wellbeing. A key aim is to uncover evidence on how specific blue places and practices enable health. The idea of a continuum is utilised to link theory and practice and connect rather than divide affect, feeling and emotion. This is articulated through a set of embodied experiential practices that proposed swimming as a process of therapeutic accretion. Both personal and shared histories are used to identify the importance of both swimming practices and places to show how therapeutic accretions emerge to build healthy resilience. Additional insights suggest aspects of embodied health that are enhanced by outdoor swimming, especially in relation to bodies perceived to be inactive due to age, illness or disability. While the risks are not ignored, the need to better value outdoor swimming in cooler climates for public health is proposed, suggesting new directions for research on outdoor swimming to simultaneously capture active and passive embodied and emotional experiences within blue space.

    Item Type: Article
    Keywords: Swimming; Blue-space; Therapeutic accretion; Affect; Ireland;
    Academic Unit: Faculty of Social Sciences > Geography
    Item ID: 8938
    Identification Number: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emospa.2016.12.001
    Depositing User: Dr. Ronan Foley
    Date Deposited: 27 Oct 2017 11:05
    Journal or Publication Title: Emotion, Space and Society
    Publisher: Elsevier
    Refereed: No
    URI:
    Use Licence: This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

    Repository Staff Only(login required)

    View Item Item control page

    Downloads

    Downloads per month over past year

    Origin of downloads