PhD - Bushcraft Research

[Poacherman]

@Poacherman
I totally take your point.
However I feel that as Paul is working on a PhD he won’t be receiving knowledge from his university, quite the opposite, at that level I imagine that he is writing up new knowledge.

I certainly agree with you as I wonder who will assess the resulting work but there are many subjects that are difficult to define but which can be successfully researched.

I doubt that every “bushcrafter” who reads the dissertation will agree with it but I’m sure it will contribute to a significant aspect of what we do.

A thought as I type: Which faculty is mentoring this study. Is it leisure, politics, sociology, sport or something else; maybe religion or psychiatry?

I would be interested to read the resulting paper for sure.

When the resulting paper comes out I’d like to read it to quantify the results myself.

 

[Poacherman]

When the resulting paper comes out I’d like to read it to quantify the results myself.

Be interesting

 

[Paul Moseley]

If nothing else I am full of opinions on the subject. I would be interested to see how you define "bushcraft" for the purposes of research. It is an interesting line of research and subject to Russell's paradox, you are in effect presenting the natural world to participants in the very act of researching it.

Only if you stick with a language that relies on nouns; otherwise, you are into ZFC territory.

 

[Paul Moseley]

I believe bushcraft is something that carnt be taught in a classroom phd setting it’s better to have hands on years experiences learning thru trial and error and not totally relying on courses n so forth .

We are not being taught bushcraft; we are, by way of just a few examples, critically investigating its cosmological, ontological and epistemological qualities, along with problematising it in terms of its colonial histories and contemporary practices, bushcraft tourism and neo-primitivism, and the cultures and traditions of a variety of skills/crafts, through a variety of lenses.

Bushcraft is a varied set of practices that encounter a variety of aesthetics. Its cultural and political layers are primarily unacknowledged as its practice feels intuitively very "natural". Many might say it is just simply being in nature. I am always reminded of the saying, "you don't know what you don't know" Still, this has many unrecognised influences, narratives and impacts before even beginning to look at the media/industry side of things.

The postgraduate has been phenomenal, and Dr Lisa Fenton is pioneering some amazing positions and approaches to understanding it more fully, as well as how it can be used towards quite different ends. My PhD is exploring just one of these.

 

[Paul Moseley]

I cannot believe I am typing this again.
If you check out Memory Code by Dr Lynne Kelly (The book version of her PhD thesis so you could read that instead) and British Woodland by Ray Mears in that order.
The thing that strikes me as really interesting is the way they saw the world. Ray menitions having more seasons and Memory Code has indicators as to the change of season.

Both of these I have read and whilst Memory Code provides some interesting starting points for discussions, it misses out on some of the most important differences in how the other-than-human is experienced amongst different groups and points in time. We read our concept of "nature" into what we imagine others are experiencing. Rays book is average.

 

[Laurentius]

We are not being taught bushcraft; we are, by way of just a few examples, critically investigating its cosmological, ontological and epistemological qualities, along with problematising it in terms of its colonial histories and contemporary practices, bushcraft tourism and neo-primitivism, and the cultures and traditions of a variety of skills/crafts, through a variety of lenses.

Bushcraft is a varied set of practices that encounter a variety of aesthetics. Its cultural and political layers are primarily unacknowledged as its practice feels intuitively very "natural". Many might say it is just simply being in nature. I am always reminded of the saying, "you don't know what you don't know" Still, this has many unrecognised influences, narratives and impacts before even beginning to look at the media/industry side of things.

The postgraduate has been phenomenal, and Dr Lisa Fenton is pioneering some amazing positions and approaches to understanding it more fully, as well as how it can be used towards quite different ends. My PhD is exploring just one of these.

It's what I do to get away from sociological jargon. I think you missed out Theology there in passing, the spiritual element and historic medititive practice of getting away from the busy world, ore et labore etc.

 

[Pattree]

a variety of skills/crafts, through a variety of lenses.

Hi Paul.
Your post intrigued me. I wonder what direction your chosen lenses are pointing in and what colour they are…….

My PhD is exploring just one of these.

……. and which one.

I most heartily wish you well in your work. I would be willing to contribute but am very new this divers concept of Bushcraft.

Further I am a pretty fundamental Pantheist which makes some of the discriminations and categorisations that seem to be part of Bushcraft problematic. To say that it is part of my theology doesn’t help much as so are black holes, tardigrades and concrete structures. The principle characteristic of Bushcraft that calls to me is fun. Perhaps I should admit that it also contributes something to identity.

Very best of luck,
Pat.

 

[Paul Moseley]

It's what I do to get away from sociological jargon. I think you missed out Theology there in passing, the spiritual element and historic medititive practice of getting away from the busy world, ore et labore etc.

Cosmology includes theology.

 

[Paul Moseley]

It's what I do to get away from sociological jargon. I think you missed out Theology there in passing, the spiritual element and historic medititive practice of getting away from the busy world, ore et labore etc.

The links between bushcraft and what Karl Marx wrote extensively about the need to address disenfranchisement from work/society were part of the postgrad.

 

[bigbear]

Cosmology includes theology.

Does it ?
part of my issue here is how one defines terms, I see the two as very different entities, one scientific and one a group of belief systems.

I also find it interesting that one can gain a PhD ( an original contribution to a field of academic study ) when bushcraft has been practised by mankind since his appearance on the planet.
Specifically I have a couple of questions…
When did bushcraft become an academic field ?
Which journals of note should one look to for similar research ?
Is there a Professor of Bushcraft at Cumbria University ? If so how many other Universities have these ?
It sounds to me more like Sociology cum Anthropology with a bit of Cultural studies thrown in, but I would be interested to learn more about the academic field.

 

[Paul Moseley]

Does it ?
part of my issue here is how one defines terms, I see the two as very different entities, one scientific and one a group of belief systems.

I also find it interesting that one can gain a PhD ( an original contribution to a field of academic study ) when bushcraft has been practised by mankind since his appearance on the planet.
Specifically I have a couple of questions…
When did bushcraft become an academic field ?
Which journals of note should one look to for similar research ?
Is there a Professor of Bushcraft at Cumbria University ? If so how many other Universities have these ?
It sounds to me more like Sociology cum Anthropology with a bit of Cultural studies thrown in, but I would be interested to learn more about the academic field.

Academically, unless referring specifically to the structures of galaxies, cosmologies are how individuals, communities and cultures conceive of the creation, existence and meaning of reality. Science influences some forms of cosmology, theology, and others, for example.

Bushcraft has not been practised since mankind appeared; that is an assumption. There has never been a technologically advanced civilisation like ours, with such large-scale infrastructure, in which members choose to explore TEK. Culturally, there have been thousands of years of cultural change, such as the invention of what we now perceive as "nature" which feels intuitively universal but is, in fact, a particular cultural perception. You read your culturally informed perceptions into the accounts of others unless how their perceptions and embodied sensations are articulated. They are rarely of interest to Western anthropologists until very recently.

If you read the work of people like Tim Ingold, the field of ethnoecology (which includes, but is distinct from ethnobotany), the work of Derrida on assemblages, Soul Hunters by Willerslev and Donna Haraway's Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin with the Chthulucene, it would give some useful examples of some of the lines of enquiry taking place.

Bushcraft has been studied in isolated papers and research efforts for many years. The University of Cumbria created a dedicated pathway in 2021. It is led by Dr Fenton who ran one of the largest bushcraft companies, Woodsmoke, before gaining a Masters degree and then PhD (looking at the Ethnobotany within Bushcraft). Her fellow leader is Dr Zoe Playdon who I am convinced is a regenerative timelord. It the only explanation for the amount she has accomplished. She has also been on more wilderness trips and spent more time besides a campfire than most bushcrafters I have come across. They both know their bowdrill from their elbow

I hope I have addressed your questions, I am typing on my phone whilst I am out in the woods so apologies for any typos. The bad grammar is purely of my own effort

 

[Poacherman]

We are not being taught bushcraft; we are, by way of just a few examples, critically investigating its cosmological, ontological and epistemological qualities, along with problematising it in terms of its colonial histories and contemporary practices, bushcraft tourism and neo-primitivism, and the cultures and traditions of a variety of skills/crafts, through a variety of lenses.

Bushcraft is a varied set of practices that encounter a variety of aesthetics. Its cultural and political layers are primarily unacknowledged as its practice feels intuitively very "natural". Many might say it is just simply being in nature. I am always reminded of the saying, "you don't know what you don't know" Still, this has many unrecognised influences, narratives and impacts before even beginning to look at the media/industry side of things.

The postgraduate has been phenomenal, and Dr Lisa Fenton is pioneering some amazing positions and approaches to understanding it more fully, as well as how it can be used towards quite different ends. My PhD is exploring just one of these.

I don’t know about cosmological this and theological that I just go hunting n fishing as much as humanly possible lol.

 

[bigbear]

Academically, unless referring specifically to the structures of galaxies, cosmologies are how individuals, communities and cultures conceive of the creation, existence and meaning of reality. Science influences some forms of cosmology, theology, and others, for example.

Bushcraft has not been practised since mankind appeared; that is an assumption. There has never been a technologically advanced civilisation like ours, with such large-scale infrastructure, in which members choose to explore TEK. Culturally, there have been thousands of years of cultural change, such as the invention of what we now perceive as "nature" which feels intuitively universal but is, in fact, a particular cultural perception. You read your culturally informed perceptions into the accounts of others unless how their perceptions and embodied sensations are articulated. They are rarely of interest to Western anthropologists until very recently.

If you read the work of people like Tim Ingold, the field of ethnoecology (which includes, but is distinct from ethnobotany), the work of Derrida on assemblages, Soul Hunters by Willerslev and Donna Haraway's Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin with the Chthulucene, it would give some useful examples of some of the lines of enquiry taking place.

Bushcraft has been studied in isolated papers and research efforts for many years. The University of Cumbria created a dedicated pathway in 2021. It is led by Dr Fenton who ran one of the largest bushcraft companies, Woodsmoke, before gaining a Masters degree and then PhD (looking at the Ethnobotany within Bushcraft). Her fellow leader is Dr Zeo Playdon who I am convinced is a regenerative timelord. It the only explanation for the amount she has accomplished. She has also been on more wilderness trips and spent more time besides a campfire than most bushcrafters I have come across. They both know their bowdrill from their elbow

I hope I have addressed your questions, I am typing on my phone whilst I am out in the woods so apologies for any typos. The bad grammar is purely of my own effort

To be fair you did refer to cosmology I think, which is the study of galaxies. I am familiar with Derrida thanks.
Seems that some of what you are saying was said a long time ago eg Orientalism by Saiid.
It does seem to me that your Timelord poses an interesting question about whether yours is truly an academic study……most people at that level are so busy researching and reviewing etc that they would have little time to go off on expeditions, or are you suggesting that is research ? If so how many weeks for a Masters ?
I am uncomfortable when people try to make things academic for what seems to be their own self worth, pace the Taylor Swift conference in New Zealand. Does a degree in Bushcraft or Swift studies really have the same rigour as say English Lit or Physics at a Russell group or better University ? And why do you feel you need to get a doctorate ? What will it achieve ?
I am perhaps too sceptical having seem too many people with worthless degrees and a ton of debt being surprised when nobody offers them the keys to the executive toilets and their choice of BMW.

 

[Paul Moseley]

To be fair you did refer to cosmology I think, which is the study of galaxies. I am familiar with Derrida thanks.
Seems that some of what you are saying was said a long time ago eg Orientalism by Saiid.
It does seem to me that your Timelord poses an interesting question about whether yours is truly an academic study……most people at that level are so busy researching and reviewing etc that they would have little time to go off on expeditions, or are you suggesting that is research ? If so how many weeks for a Masters ?
I am uncomfortable when people try to make things academic for what seems to be their own self worth, pace the Taylor Swift conference in New Zealand. Does a degree in Bushcraft or Swift studies really have the same rigour as say English Lit or Physics at a Russell group or better University ? And why do you feel you need to get a doctorate ? What will it achieve ?
I am perhaps too sceptical having seem too many people with worthless degrees and a ton of debt being surprised when nobody offers them the keys to the executive toilets and their choice of BMW.

No, I mentioned cosmological, along with ontological and epistemological. Not cosmology, ie the study of galaxies.

How do you see assemblages as a means to explore kinship with "place" given the temporal nature of, well nature?

Saiid was part of the first week's reading, yes.

If you have any doubt about the people involved and their abilities, look them up and engage with them personally

The robustness is what you would expect of a mainstream postgraduate degree. It is 180 credits at Level 8 (level 9, the top level, being PhD).

I am pursuing a doctorate as it is a fascinating field of study that challenges me professionally and personally. It allows my practice to develop and enriches how I see how skills, crafts and knowledge can be beneficial in creating a kinship with the more-than-human. This is something I have been interested in since I was a child.

I don't like BMWs and I am happy to **** in the woods

 

[Paul Moseley]

I don’t know about cosmological this and theological that I just go hunting n fishing as much as humanly possible lol.

shhhh, neither do I, its just a cover so the Mrs lets me do it more often

 

[Laurentius]

Academically, unless referring specifically to the structures of galaxies, cosmologies are how individuals, communities and cultures conceive of the creation, existence and meaning of reality. Science influences some forms of cosmology, theology, and others, for example.

Bushcraft has not been practised since mankind appeared; that is an assumption. There has never been a technologically advanced civilisation like ours, with such large-scale infrastructure, in which members choose to explore TEK. Culturally, there have been thousands of years of cultural change, such as the invention of what we now perceive as "nature" which feels intuitively universal but is, in fact, a particular cultural perception. You read your culturally informed perceptions into the accounts of others unless how their perceptions and embodied sensations are articulated. They are rarely of interest to Western anthropologists until very recently.

If you read the work of people like Tim Ingold, the field of ethnoecology (which includes, but is distinct from ethnobotany), the work of Derrida on assemblages, Soul Hunters by Willerslev and Donna Haraway's Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin with the Chthulucene, it would give some useful examples of some of the lines of enquiry taking place.

Bushcraft has been studied in isolated papers and research efforts for many years. The University of Cumbria created a dedicated pathway in 2021. It is led by Dr Fenton who ran one of the largest bushcraft companies, Woodsmoke, before gaining a Masters degree and then PhD (looking at the Ethnobotany within Bushcraft). Her fellow leader is Dr Zoe Playdon who I am convinced is a regenerative timelord. It the only explanation for the amount she has accomplished. She has also been on more wilderness trips and spent more time besides a campfire than most bushcrafters I have come across. They both know their bowdrill from their elbow

I hope I have addressed your questions, I am typing on my phone whilst I am out in the woods so apologies for any typos. The bad grammar is purely of my own effort

I am beginning to have real problems with your outlook, Theology is no more a branch of Cosmology than Sociology is a branch of Ontology. Theology (and I am not an expert) deals with interpretations and sacred texts. To say that Bushcraft has not been practised etc etc is demonstrably false because you have already reified Bushcraft into a thing, rather than a complex idea dealing essentially with the craft of everyday living in different eras, the relationship to taming nature as it were to make it work for you, making fire, shelter, gathering food and as I have said there would appear to be a strong spiritual element to that involving ritual, propitiation, magic etc etc.

 

[Laurentius]

I am uncomfortable when people try to make things academic for what seems to be their own self worth, pace the Taylor Swift conference in New Zealand. Does a degree in Bushcraft or Swift studies really have the same rigour as say English Lit or Physics at a Russell group or better University ? And why do you feel you need to get a doctorate ? What will it achieve ?
I am perhaps too sceptical having seem too many people with worthless degrees and a ton of debt being surprised when nobody offers them the keys to the executive toilets and their choice of BMW.

To be fair to the guy, some people do pursue research out of a deep interest in the subject, or indeed following the letter of the PhD application rubric to make an original contribution to the study of it. The worth in my PhD was as much the process as the outcome, that is to say the relationships built during my researches and my contribution to the advancement of knowledge on my subject in general through that participation and sharing of knowledge and debate. It cost me a small fortune I will never get back, but at my age career advancement was never the point. There are two things in my life that I can look back on as real achievements. One of them is gaining my doctorate, the other is planting my woodland and the two are actually connected being as the individual who helped to finance my tree planting was someone who I met during my studies.

 

[Paul Moseley]

I am beginning to have real problems with your outlook, Theology is no more a branch of Cosmology than Sociology is a branch of Ontology. Theology (and I am not an expert) deals with interpretations and sacred texts. To say that Bushcraft has not been practised etc etc is demonstrably false because you have already reified Bushcraft into a thing, rather than a complex idea dealing essentially with the craft of everyday living in different eras, the relationship to taming nature as it were to make it work for you, making fire, shelter, gathering food and as I have said there would appear to be a strong spiritual element to that involving ritual, propitiation, magic etc etc.

That is ok, how boring would it be if we all agreed on everything

What is the definition of cosmology that you are using? Theology deals with interpretations/sacred texts about the creation, existence and nature of reality.

Bushcraft is not being reified, it is being put into an appropriate context. It accesses TEK, but it is not wholly TEK for example

We do deal with bushcraft as a bricolage of complex relationships. However, what, how, when, why and by whom it is practised at one time in one culture, is different from another. Living for a weekend out of a 60lt rucksack with modern equipment is very different from living continuously from the land, ie subsistence. Aesthetically there are parallels, however, in many other ways there are important differences. Engaging with these skills now is different than 3000 years ago, at the very least due to the difference is languages between those times.

I have not denied there is a spiritual element. I agree that any form of practice is capable of having a spiritual dimension, as the practice of skills, crafts and the development of knowledge about how to live with the land and our kin.

 

[Paul Moseley]

To be fair to the guy, some people do pursue research out of a deep interest in the subject, or indeed following the letter of the PhD application rubric to make an original contribution to the study of it. The worth in my PhD was as much the process as the outcome, that is to say the relationships built during my researches and my contribution to the advancement of knowledge on my subject in general through that participation and sharing of knowledge and debate. It cost me a small fortune I will never get back, but at my age career advancement was never the point. There are two things in my life that I can look back on as real achievements. One of them is gaining my doctorate, the other is planting my woodland and the two are actually connected being as the individual who helped to finance my tree planting was someone who I met during my studies.

I left school with nothing and found my "thing" in bushcraft. I am not interested in telling anyone what is right, or wrong, heck, I would be surprised if anyone ever reads it other than me and my tutors. I am just fascinated by what the process creates like you say.

Someone asked me if I would be "the" bushcraft expert, to which I could not say "no!" quick enough. I am trying to become really good at asking interesting questions about a field I live by .

 

[Laurentius]

T

That is ok, how boring would it be if we all agreed on everything

What is the definition of cosmology that you are using? Theology deals with interpretations/sacred texts about the creation, existence and nature of reality.

Bushcraft is not being reified, it is being put into an appropriate context. It accesses TEK, but it is not wholly TEK for example

We do deal with bushcraft as a bricolage of complex relationships. However, what, how, when, why and by whom it is practised at one time in one culture, is different from another. Living for a weekend out of a 60lt rucksack with modern equipment is very different from living continuously from the land, ie subsistence. Aesthetically there are parallels, however, in many other ways there are important differences. Engaging with these skills now is different than 3000 years ago, at the very least due to the difference is languages between those times.

I have not denied there is a spiritual element. I agree that any form of practice is capable of having a spiritual dimension, as the practice of skills, crafts and the development of knowledge about how to live with the land and our kin.

Shock horror, I am not a bushcrafter, I attach myself to this general heading (as I suspect many of us here do) because bushcraft has come to describe some things I enjoy doing and I have been doing for a very long time. I don't think you can put a hedge around bushcraft. Forexample to me how to light a fire and keep it going is something that was everyday practice in the solid fuel era granted I used whatever technology was available such as matches, firelighters and newspaper, but it is still a survival technology like knowing how to fix your plumbing. It's not something I saw on TV or read in a book and decided that I want to do that but an extension of my way of life albeit I avidly follow groups like this for tips and advice as you never stop learning. I don't want to get into definitions of cosmology as we would be here all night. I am with the early Marx in his interpretations of Feurbach, I like making things as that is what makes me. William Morris was the cross over between that philosophy and actually doing something with it.