Share Your Views About The English Countryside
20 December 2011
How do 21st Century city dwellers really feel about the great outdoors?
I want to discover what has influenced their [people's] relationship with the rural spaces and to understand how perception of the English countryside is changing in the present day.
”University of Derby PhD Researcher, Paul Wilson.
Are our views of the English countryside 60 years out of date? A postgraduate researcher at the University of Derby is seeking to discover how 21st Century city dwellers really feel about the great outdoors by interviewing volunteers.
For his PhD thesis, Paul Wilson is exploring whether people's perceptions of the English countryside are becoming increasingly disconnected from real rural life, and based more upon the idealistic and romantic representations of a pre-industrial way of life we see in advertising and on television.
Paul has already reached out to people through popular countryside magazines; asking readers for their thoughts about their lifelong experiences and relationships with the countryside. He is now seeking a number of volunteers who live within a one hour drive of the Peak District National Park and are willing to talk to him on two or three occasions over the coming months.
Paul said: "I would love to speak to anyone who regularly uses the countryside for leisure, be this for walking, wildlife watching or sports. I want to discover what has influenced their relationship with the rural spaces and to understand how perception of the English countryside is changing in the present day."
Through his research Paul hopes to contribute to new ways of thinking about recreation in the rural landscape; taking into account the increasingly complex and diverse interests that converge upon it in the present day.
If you would like to get involved in the study,contact Paul Wilson via email on p.wilson@derby.ac.uk
For more information please contact Press & PR Officer Joanna Colburn on 01332 593004 or 07775 036988, or email j.colburn@derby.ac.uk
