The Unsettling Outdoors. Russell Hitchings

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Acknowledgments

      Whilst carrying out the four projects on which this book draws, I have benefitted from many supportive academic friends over the years. This started during my PhD research, which shapes Chapter 5. At that time, I shared an office with, and learnt a lot from, peers including Caroline Bressey, Jason Chilvers, Robert Doubleday, Tara Duncan, Andrew Harris, Elaine Ho, Jason Lim and Bronwyn Purvis. Gail Davies and James Kneale were consistently wise and encouraging supervisors too. Since then, a further series of colleagues, in particular Chris Bear, Rosie Day and Alan Latham, have taken turns in helping me to figure out the nature and scope of my academic work. Alan was also my collaborator on the project that shapes Chapter 4. Those who did their PhDs with me were pretty good at exploring the big picture too. Elizabeth Shove and Gordon Walker have been sources of inspiration from the north. Further afield, colleagues in Australia have always provided refreshingly honest exchanges about how we work whenever I came to visit (whilst also being very welcoming and a lot of fun). Two further Australians, Alison Browne and Tullia Jack (along with a rogue Yorkshireman), were part of cooking up the project that is discussed in Chapter 6. Alongside all these academic friends, many others (and more excellent research trips) have helped me to refine the ideas that I present in this book. Cecily Maller gave thoughtful comments on an earlier draft and so did Paul Harrison. The editors and reviewers for the RGS book series were a pleasure to work with too – striking a very welcome balance between encouragement and critical engagement. My thanks to all.

This book would have been impossible without the financial support that allowed me to undertake the four studies that provide it with a backbone of empirical evidence. The studies that are considered in Chapters 3 and 5 were funded by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (RES-000-22-21-29; PTA-026-27-0465), the project discussed in Chapter 4 was supported by UCL’s ‘Bridging the Gaps’ fund, and the field research on which I draw in Chapter 5 was supported by both UCL and the ESRC (RES-597-25-003). It is also definitely true to say that this book could not have been written without the help of all the different people who took part in these studies (for whom I should say upfront that pseudonyms have been used throughout). I enjoyed meeting them all and was frequently delighted by their willingness to talk with me about the detail of their everyday lives.

      Alongside them, my family and friends have supported me in all sorts of ways.

      So thanks to you too!