Gold Metal Waters by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University Press of Colorado

Fields of Care

The Animas River is more than a hydrological system, the center of a watershed, and a recreational juggernaut. This public symbol also exudes what Tuan (1996, 451) recognized as a “field of care,” which he notes is “also a place if the people are emotionally bound to their material environment and, further, they are conscious of its identity and spatial limit.” For some reason, the Animas elicits deep emotions and has its own personality, prescribed to it by individual members of the local community but given greater context and meaning by relationships the community has developed with it. Several nonprofit, grassroots organizations advocate for environmental responsibility and awareness in the region; many of them focus much of their attention on the Animas. This indicates public awareness and action. An event in the fall of 2012 is an illustration. Over 9,000 local residents formed a continuous human chain along the Animas River Trail from the city’s north terminus to the south to celebrate the completion of the trail. During the forty-year span of its development, a tremendous amount of planning, collaboration, financing, and persistence was required. The celebration event was equally involved, as it required the work of law enforcement, emergency services, service clubs, churches, sports teams, and local businesses. The event was intended to officially recognize the completion of the trail; but, as the organizer said, “it brought us together literally and symbolically” and was a way to reconnect community members even in times of difference (Turner 2017). The event was intended to connect community members; it also reconnected them to an important field of care and a public symbol in which they have invested a tremendous amount of cultural capital.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.