River Swimming Through Uncertainty
Pandemic Immersions in a Therapeutic Chalkscape
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3618684 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Maddy Pearson (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 10 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 1-12 |
| Publication date | 2023-04-24 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Medicine Anthropology Theory (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2405-691X • E-ISSN: 2405-691X |
| Publisher | Edinburgh University Library (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.17157/mat.10.1.7045 |
| OpenAlex | W4367180356 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 11 |
In this Field Note, I share my experiences of an immersive period of ethnography undertaken with river swimmers in and along the River Beane and River Lea in the county town of Hertford, South-East England, from July 2020 until January 2021. As well as my personal experiences of being a swimmer, I include insights and observations from those I swam alongside to reflect on the feeling of wellbeing that river swimming instills in those dipping, swimming, and 'dwelling' in their local rivers. I use these insights to expand the notion of therapeutic landscapes, noting not only their temporality during a pandemic period of uncertainty and disconnection but also their minerality. I explore how therapeutic connections and closer relations between humans, non-humans and rivers, all watered by the same chalk aquifer, might be framed through the connective substance of chalk
Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Disconnection · Ethnography · Feeling · Geography · Political science · Temporality · Geographies of human-animal interactions · History · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology
Swimming as an accretive practice in healthy blue space
Blue space geographies
Number Narratives
My corner of the world
Slippery
Swimming in Ireland
The Perception of the Environment
"I'm always entirely happy when I'm here!" Urban blue enhancing human health and well-being in Cologne and Düsseldorf, Germany
Therapeutic landscapes
If I go in like a Cranky Sea Lion, I Come out like a Smiling Dolphin
Vibrant Matter
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |