The aim of this research is to explore whether it was possible to promote different relationships with nature within a constrained budget and limited time. We conducted an “experiment in empathy (as nature)”. The experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that ‘if the natural world had a greater say over our research endeavours, we would do different research and/or do research differently’.
The first part of our experiment involved inviting selected participants to a ‘re-minding’ retreat to re-write a research strategy 'as' elements of nature. A comparison of the before and after strategies shows how the revised version developed by air, water, soil, landscape, plants and birds shows some rather interesting and unexpected differences. We conclude that it is possible to promote more empathetic relationships with nature and that giving Nature a say over our research may result in some intriguing changes to research practice.
We have since conducted this experiment with two more groups, and are planning further work building on this to further explore applications of empathetic concern for behaviour change.
Collaborators
Melissa Robson-Williams
