Seascapes: Shaped by the Sea

Despite the fact that the sea covers 70 per cent of the Earth's surface, and is integral to the workings of the world, it has been largely neglected or perceived as marginal in modern consciousness. This edited collection disrupts notions of the sea as 'other', as foreign and featureless, through specific, situated accounts which highlight the centrality of the sea for the individuals concerned. Bringing together academics who combine scholarly expertise with lived experiences on, in and with the sea, it examines humans' relationships with the sea. Through the use of auto-ethnographic accounting, the contributors reflect on how the sea has shaped their sense of identity, belonging and connection. They examine what it is to be engaged with the sea, and narrate their lived, sentient, corporeal experiences. The sea is a cultural seascape just as it is physical reality. The sea shapes us and we, in turn, attempt to 'shape it' as we construct various versions of it that reflect our on-going and mutable relationship with it. The use of embodied accounts, as a way of conveying lived-experiences, and the integration of relevant theoretical frames for understanding the broader cultural implications provide new opportunities to understand seascapes.

Mike Brown is a senior lecturer at the University of Waikato, New Zealand and Barbara Humberstone is a Professor of Sociology of Sport and Outdoor Education at Buckinghamshire New University, UK.

Contents: Foreword, Philip Steinberg; Introduction, Mike Brown and Barbara Humberstone; Seascapes, Mike Brown; Embodied narratives: being with the sea, Barbara Humberstone; Seaspaces: surfing the sea as pedagogy of self, lisahunter; On being shaped by surfing: experiencing the world of the littoral zone, Jon Anderson; Sailing across the Cook Strait, Robyn Zink; Being a brown bodyboarder, Mihi Nemani; Sailing with Gregory Bateson, Peter Reason; In the middle of the deep blue sea, Karen Barbour; Standing then floating: searching for a sense of sea-place on the South Coast of Australia, Brian Wattchow; In the name of the whale, Robbie Nicol; Unlikely becomings: passion, swimming and learning to love the sea, Karen Throsby; 'Do we keel haul the little %$#@ or chuck him in the chain locker?': how life at sea becomes 'stories to live by' for a woman on a fishing vessel, elke emerald and Fiona Ewing; Embodied narratives and fluid geographies, Barbara Humberstone and Mike Brown; Index.