It’s the River’s call: Rethinking our relationship with nature through the embodied experience of sustainability professionals

Abstract

How can we stop taking the natural world for granted and change the way we address the ecological challenges we face? We address this question by drawing on a study of Latin American sustainability professionals who, while spending time in Amazonia, experienced a fundamental ontological shift in the way they understand their relationship with nature. Our theoretical contribution lies in elaborating a phenomenologically oriented relational ontology, which means paying attention to how our bodies/emotions/senses can help us understand our relationship with nature in more embedded and existential ways: as human/subject–nature/subject where both have agency. This extends current relational ontologies by elucidating how feeling nature in the depths of our being can be transformational in how we understand and act upon our ecological responsibilities. We draw on Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology as philosophical positioning and interpretative phenomenological analysis as the research method. Four experiential themes highlight how our research participants’ understanding of their relationship with nature changed from separation (human/subject–nature/object) to intertwinement, and impacted their personal and professional lives in significant ways. Experiencing life in this way brings a sense of respect and responsibility for nature that we hope will resonate and encourage readers to think differently about our relationship with nature.