Abstract
How should we live in the world such that we have culturally enriching and worthwhile lives when the material and social fabric of our situation does nothing to nurture or sustain the kinds of relationships with each other and with nature that would seem to be a prerequisite for a healthy life? This chapter examines the claim that there are compensatory benefits – such as cosmopolitanism and increasing self reflection – that mitigate the psychological and social problems of living un-embedded lives in placeless environments. It then proposes the solution that simply by making things, actively engaging in things and, particularly, by mending things, we can rediscover the necessary environmental virtues to reintegrate ourselves into the material fabric of the world. Why this should work has to do with the transformatory power of active, purposive engagement with the material realm. Moreover, we can do this even in the midst of contemporary ‘thinned out’ spaces to make them into enriching places.
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Brook, I. (2012). Make, Do, and Mend: Solving Placelessness Through Embodied Environmental Engagement. In: Brady, E., Phemister, P. (eds) Human-Environment Relations. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2825-7_9
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