This thesis explores how rally drivers in Scotland perceive environmental issues and
the environments through which they drive. The overarching aim behind this is to
think about a group of people who may be more hostile towards questions of
environmental responsibility, and look at how such stakeholders reason round their
behaviours and perceive environmental issues. I argue that due to the potentially farreaching
impacts of contemporary environmental challenges, it is crucial to take
seriously the viewpoints and values of those who are perhaps not so willing to
engage with environmental issues.
The work draws on several bodies of literature. First is work in environmental
philosophy on the practical contribution of this sub-discipline, in particular
environmental pragmatism. Second is thinking in sociology and human geography
on responsibility, especially the interface between responsibility and care. Third is
recent material in geography on the body and movement, in particular the
burgeoning field of automobility.
These issues are addressed through a three-fold research design. Ethnographic and
participatory techniques are used to foster an understanding of what exactly ‘the
environment’ might mean to rally drivers (and indeed other users of the forest with
whom rallying may come into conflict) and how it is experienced. In-depth
interviews and subsequent narrative analysis seek to delve further into participants’
narratives and life histories in order to get a handle on how rally driving sits in
relation to broader life contexts. Finally, two small-scale participatory projects with
rally organisers relating to environmentally-responsible practice look at how this all
comes together when participants make practical responses to environmental
challenges.
The key conclusions arising from the empirical data are that environmental problems
are experienced through a range of senses, with different groups using different
sensory ‘evidence’ to make claims about environmental damage; that in some cases
stakeholders’ views of environmental issues are based on perceived conflict with
others as opposed to actual conflict; and that the values activities such as motor sport
may represent are just as significant as their physical environmental impacts. In
terms of the broader applicability of this research, I suggest two things. Firstly, that
one of the key challenges in responding to contemporary environmental issues lies in
thinking through how publics link up their everyday practices with much bigger
discourses on global environmental change. Secondly, that careful and critical
reflection on the rich narratives of place and people, and on the range of emotions
shaped by embodied experience, can go some way to explaining why people may
persist with more environmentally damaging practices in spite of ethical and
environmental criticisms