Visitor perceptions of rural landscapes: A case study in the Peak District National Park, England

Journal of Environmental Management 90 (2009) 1195–1203

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Visitor perceptions of rural landscapes: A case study in the Peak District National Park, England Natalie Suckall*, Evan D.G. Fraser, Thomas Cooper, Claire Quinn Sustainability Research Institute, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Woodhouse Lane, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history: Received 5 March 2007 Received in revised form 15 May 2008 Accepted 9 June 2008 Available online 30 July 2008

Maintaining national parks is an integral policy tool to conserve rare habitats. However, because national parks are funded by taxpayers, they must also serve the needs of the general public. Increasingly, and thanks to today’s diverse society, there is evidence that this creates challenges for park managers who are pulled in two opposing directions: to conserve nature on the one hand and to meet different visitor expectations on the other. This tension was explored in the Peak District National Park, a rural landscape dominated by heather moorland and sheep farming in Northern England where research was conducted to determine how social class and ethnicity shaped perceptions of the park. Results uncovered that social class played a very strong role in shaping perceptions of this region with ‘middle class’ respondents reacting far more favourably to the park than people from more working class backgrounds. We observed ethnicity playing a similar role, though our results are less significantly different. Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Perceptions Social class Ethnicity National park management

1. Introduction The ever growing ‘ecological footprint’ (Wackernagel and Ress, 1996) of urbanised society has led to habitat destruction, fragmentation and the loss of biodiversity and species (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2003). In an effort to protect biodiversity, national parks, where governments place large areas out of bounds from development, are an important tool (United Nations Environment Programme – World Conservation Monitoring Centre, 2007), and can help maintain ‘ecosystem services’ like flood protection, carbon sequestration and recreational opportunity (Farber et al., 2002). It is the responsibility of park managers to ensure that parks not only provide these services, but do so in a way that meets the needs of local communities who, in the UK, live in and around the park, and the nation’s taxpayers who contribute to the park’s funding. This can create conflict when competing needs and priorities emerge, including the needs and priorities of those taxpayers who may not use the park, or see no value in it. Broadly speaking, management activities to mitigate this conflict fall into three categories. The first is regulation where activities within the park are carefully planned and monitored to promote conservation regardless of the conflicts it provokes. Second is to allow the park to evolve over time to reflect the changing needs of its users. Third is

Abbreviations: PDNP, Peak District National Park; MPA, Marine Protected Area. * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ44 113 343 6466; fax: þ44 113 343 6716. E-mail address: [email protected] (N. Suckall). 0301-4797/$ – see front matter Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2008.06.003

through education where environmental programmes could lead to a greater understanding of and respect for the area. These three types of strategies relate to work by Ostrom (1990), who argues that when conflicts between managers and local people arise, they are often a result of a disconnection between park rules and local conditions. McNeely (1990) echoes this point, suggesting the long-term protection of environmentally sensitive areas is threatened if people living in and around protected areas are ignored. For example, Trakolis (2001) describes how, during the establishment of the Prespes Lakes National Park in Greece, a top down decision making process excluded the local community. As a result, conflicts arose with local people resenting the imposition of the national park. Similarly, in their study of Torre Guaceto, a Marine Protected Area (MPA) in Southern Italy, Petrosillo et al. (2007) examined levels of visitor knowledge based on geographic proximity, showing that a visitor’s awareness of being in an MPA was highly dependent on their place of residence with the least aware visitors coming from neighbouring municipalities. The literature suggests, therefore, that local community participation is needed to identify both the problems and the solutions in the face of conflicting needs in the world’s national parks (for example, see Sewell, 1973; Reed et al., 2006). However, as Xu et al. (2006) point out, local people are not homogeneous and do not share common norms. Within a locality, a community bounded by geography may be made up of diverse groups and individuals. Stringer et al. (2006) state that by encouraging diverse stakeholders to work together, relationships can be transformed, enabling community members to identify new ways of cooperation. Fraser et al. (2006) describe how the development of sustainability

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indicators in Guernsey followed a participatory process to ensure diverse community members had a role in managing their environment. After some initial apathy within the local community, a relevant list of sustainability indicators was produced. This provided a useful way of overcoming differences and forging consensus. It is, therefore, essential to understand how heterogeneity within a community can result in a diverse range of attitudes and perceptions towards a national park, and how these attitudes and perceptions can impact on long-term management. As a result, the goal of this paper is to explore the tensions between current national park management and the diverse needs of a heterogeneous public by exploring the differences in perceptions of nature held by people belonging to different social classes1 and ethnicities2. This paper focuses specifically on visitor perceptions of the Peak District National Park, a rural landscape dominated by heather moorlands and sheep farming in Northern England. We begin with a literature review on the ways that class and ethnicity can shape perceptions of the natural environment. Next, we present results from focus groups, questionnaires and interviews on the Peak District National Park that were conducted with both children and adults from different ethnic groups and social classes in Northern England. 1.1. Lifestyle divisions within a heterogeneous society In order to understand who visits natural areas and why, it is essential to examine the links between belonging to a particular social group and the choices an individual makes in terms of cultural/leisure activities (e.g. Urry, 1990; Featherstone, 1991). For example, Bourdieu (1986) argues that a person’s ‘lifestyle’ is comprised of preferences relating to leisure, cultural consumption, and cultural tastes. These cultural preferences act as initiators of identity (Warde, 1994; Lamont and Molnar, 2001). It is important to note, however, that a group’s identity is based on more than the original defining feature of that group for example, in a group bound by ‘class’, economic wealth may not be the most important feature. Instead, the group may be bound by a common set of values, attitudes and behaviour. Similarly, in an economically developed Western nation, ethnicity is more of a social construct than one based on geography (see Hirschfeld, 1996). As such, class and ethnic divisions still remain firmly entrenched in economically developed societies despite a broad base of economic prosperity and policies that try to promote racial equality. Regarding social class, this was reflected in the British Social Attitudes Report where 57% identified themselves as working class despite the fact that only 31% were actually employed in blue collar positions (Park et al., 2007). The idea that class is a function of something other than economics was explored in Goldthorpe and Lockwood’s (1963) seminal study of a British car factory. The authors investigated differences in lifestyle between a group of working class labourers and a group of middle class office workers. Despite the closing economic gap between the groups, working class labourers continued to eat in the factory canteen, drink in public houses, holiday in Spanish resorts, read tabloid newspapers, and their children left school at sixteen. The middle class office workers ate their lunch at a serviced canteen, drank in bars, holidayed in ‘up-market’ resorts, read broadsheet newspapers, and encouraged their children to continue

1 In this paper we follow the lifestyle approach of social structure analysis (see, Bourdieu, 1984, 1986; Lamont, 1992) and as such we define ‘social class’ as a group of people who share common values and attitudes, and have historically been bound by similarities in income. 2 In this paper, the term ethnicity is used to describe a group of people with a common history, identity, and culture based on geographical roots (see Bulmer, 1996). The term ethnic minority refers to a statistical minority in terms of population.

education after sixteen. The conclusion of this study was that class differences remained a central feature of British life regardless of changing economic fortunes. A similar theme emerges in studies on ethnicity where a recent study explored how African–Caribbean boys living in Britain adopt American hip-hop culture as a means to both ‘transcend and confront’ their status in ‘white British’ society (Lindridge et al., 2005). Although all participants in this study had been born and raised in Britain, they had developed a clear cultural identity that separated them from white British youths that was expressed through consumables that were given a racial identity based on the hip-hop artist publicising them.

1.2. How lifestyle and cultural preferences influence visits to the UK’s National Parks Within Britain (and many other economically developed Western nations) when visitors to natural environments are examined in terms of social class and ethnicity, a common pattern emerges. Visitors are overwhelmingly from affluent, middle class backgrounds and nearly all are white (Breakell, 2002). This phenomenon has received increased recognition over the last decade (see Agyeman, 1995; Agyeman and Spooner, 1997; Breakell, 2002; Pendergast, 2004) and traditionally, the absence of the working class (and ethnic minority groups) has been blamed on a lack of money, transport or leisure time (Slee, 2002; Harrison, 1991). In an economically developed society, a simple lack of funds, however, cannot explain the disproportionate number of white professionals visiting national parks, and to fully explore the causes it is necessary to examine the history, creation and meaning of Britain’s national parks. In Britain, the countryside and rural way of life has always been viewed as an important and unique part of the national identity and has been described as the ‘essence of England’ (Agyeman and Spooner, 1997; Taylor, 1995). The ‘English Countryside’, therefore, is not only a natural phenomenon, but is also a social creation loaded with images of middle class nature lovers on day trips to the country. This impression emerged quite strongly during the nineteenth century, when, in the face of rapid industrialism, the Romantic Movement appeared to offer an alternative to the gritty smoke stacks of the new economy. Romantics abandoned principles of science and reason and stressed the power of imagination, feeling and emotion. Disillusioned by the state of humanity in the cities, Romantics focused attention on the aesthetics of the natural world and places that had once been seen as ‘valueless’ became picturesque and sublime. Solitude and escape from the city were key and walking in the countryside became ‘‘.bound up with notions of individuality and self development, with a retreat from the city and the urban self, and towards a freeing of the body, a rediscovery of childish sensation, and aesthetic and moral regeneration’’ (Edensor, 2000: 84). In the world of visual arts and literature, images of the English countryside as a vast, untamed wilderness emerged and the great poets of the day began to incorporate the natural world into their writing. The Romantic poet Wordsworth described nature as ‘‘a presence that disturbs me with the joy; Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime.’’ (Wordsworth, 1798). However, the Romantics, who were almost exclusively from the upper and middle classes, expressed grave concern of the potential impact of too many people accessing the countryside. Writing about the Lake District, Wordsworth claimed that the area should be national property for the enjoyment of persons of ‘‘pure taste’’ and not for the humbler class of ‘‘shopkeepers, artisans and labourers’’ (in Blunden and Curry, 1990). The upper class Romantics, therefore, were keen to keep the landscape exclusive to those who had the financial and

N. Suckall et al. / Journal of Environmental Management 90 (2009) 1195–1203

cognitive resources to appreciate ‘‘scenery, landscape, image, [and] fresh air’’ (Williams, 1972: 6). Many modern authors argue that this ‘Romantic ethic’ has left its legacy in contemporary society and Urry (1990) notes that middle class tourists still seek out the ideals of the Romantic poets, describing such a tourist as having a ‘Romantic gaze’. In other words, the Romantic tourist seeks ‘‘.solitude, privacy and a personal and semi-spiritual relationship with the object of the gaze’’ (1990: 104). Urry contrasts the Romantic gaze, which is most often associated with more affluent people, with the ‘collective gaze’, which is far more associated with the working classes and is driven by a view of the world that emphasises conviviality. The ‘collective gazer’ seeks out ‘‘other people [to] give atmosphere or a sense of carnival to a place’’ (1990: 45). By being with other ‘collective gazers’ the feeling that one is in the ‘correct’ place is reinforced regardless of the landscape itself. In the case of ethnic minority groups in the UK, the situation is somewhat different. In these cases it may be a lack of any strong sense of belonging that goes further than the class-based exclusivity of Romanticism. It may be the case that the individual from an ethnic minority seeks out a gaze similar to that of the collective gazer, in that the presence of others seeking a similar gaze is important. In this way, the individual’s original culture is the most important variable for recreational choice. In other words, an individual is likely to be influenced by their level of acculturation – the degree of assimilation into the dominant culture. This hypothesis is developed by Berry (1980, 2003) who defines four ways in which an ethnic group (or an individual belonging to an ethnic group) may locate themselves in the dominant culture. These are (1) assimilation, where individuals from an ethnic minority seek out interaction with the dominant culture and place little value on maintaining their original culture; (2) separation, where individuals hold onto their original culture and avoid contact with the dominant culture; (3) integration, where individuals retain their original culture whilst interacting with the dominant culture, and; (4) marginalization, where the individual is excluded from participation, for example, through discrimination. Floyd et al. (1993) contribute to this discussion through an examination of how Mexican-American acculturation influenced outdoor recreation patterns. In their study, Floyd et al. found that there was a significant difference in the use of designated recreation areas between ‘low acculturated’ Mexican-Americans and Anglo-Americans. Low acculturated Mexican-Americans chose leisure activities that were closest to those practiced by Mexican communities. The authors concluded that, after education, acculturation was the most important factor in choices for participation in outdoor recreation. 1.3. Management in the UK’s national parks In the UK, national parks are required to balance the recreational needs of the population along with the need to conserve the nation’s cultural and natural heritage. This requirement is reflected in Section 61 of the Environment Act, 1995, which sets out the two statutory requirements of a national park as; (a) conserving and enhancing the natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage; and (b) promoting opportunities for the understanding and enjoyment of the special qualities of those areas by the public. The fulfilment of the second requirement is particularly important since, as Rolston (2002) puts it, there is a connection between ‘beauty and duty’; an individual who finds an area beautiful is more likely to feel a sense of duty towards its protection. Where management seeks to conserve and enhance the natural

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beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage of an area, maintaining the aesthetic status quo becomes paramount. This often means that a park will be kept the way it was when it was established, regardless of any changes in how society perceives ‘beauty’. The UK’s national parks, for example, were generally placed in regions that affluent, university-educated white people deemed important in the middle of the twentieth century. In terms of their aesthetics, therefore, the UK’s parks were designed by people who had been schooled in the Romantic idea of wilderness and solitude. However, the provision of recreational opportunity is among the most important of the ecosystem services that the UK’s national parks perform. Indeed, management will often sacrifice other ecosystem services in favour of recreational opportunity. For example, Lee (1995) describes how, within the Lake District National Park (another of England’s northern Parks), the National Trust restored Yew Tree Tarn (a small lake) after an underground ‘fault’ caused the water to drain away. As Lee points out, the effort to ensure the tarn remained ‘‘aesthetically desirable’’ required a perversion of ‘‘the course of nature in order to serve our human purposes and ends’’ (1995: 221–222). It could be argued, therefore, that the UK’s national parks are often managed to preserve tranquillity and ‘naturalness’ even if this results in a contrived landscape. Within this model, there is little space for a dynamic and evolving environment, especially if there is the potential that the resulting change may be seen as less aesthetically desirable by the people who visit the region. Perhaps then, the absence of certain visitor groups is the result of a silent conflict between land managers and contemporary Britain. In other words, it may be the case that managers are maintaining a landscape aesthetic in line with what was considered ‘beautiful’ at a specific point in history regardless of today’s views. The people who do not go to the park may share a different idea of ‘beauty’ from the Romantic ideas of tranquillity and wilderness. 1.4. Management in the Peak District National Park The Peak District National Park (PDNP) is an upland area located in central northern England. It is an example of northern European ecosystem management, which focuses on conserving early or midsuccessional, semi-natural communities (Marrs et al., 2007). In the case of the PDNP, the dominant vegetation is heather moorland that is conserved in its building phase (Dodgshon and Olsson, 2006) and if left unmanaged, rapidly develops into birch forest. To prevent this, managers burn the heather regularly (Thirgood et al., 2000), or use sheep to graze the young plants (Holden et al., 2007). The heather moorlands of the PDNP are sustained primarily for their recreational opportunity including grouse shooting and walking. In the PDNP, grouse shooting provides an important source of income for many private landowners and those involved in the tourism industry (Hudson, 1995). As grouse make their home in relatively young heather, the conservation of heather moorland is fundamental in ensuring the continuation of hunting in the uplands and the continuation of hunting income. As a result, heather moorlands have become synonymous with the ‘feel’ of the park and although this is an ‘unnatural’ landscape, in that it must be carefully managed, three quarters of visitors cite the landscape and the associated ‘naturalness’, peace, and tranquillity as their primary reason for visiting (Moors for the Future, 2004). 2. Methods In an effort to empirically assess reasons why working class and ethnic minority groups are under represented as visitors within the PDNP, two separate studies were conducted: one focusing on social class and the other on ethnicity. The research methodology followed a multi-method approach, in which qualitative and quantitative methods were triangulated. This work builds on ongoing

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participatory research (e.g. Dougill et al., 2006) and other stakeholder led activities in the PDNP. 2.1. Study area The participants of both studies were from Sheffield, a city in the north of England where half of the population lives within 15 min of the PDNP (see Fig. 1). Sheffield has typically been viewed as a working class city, however there is a large middle class population residing mainly in the western suburbs. Although Sheffield is predominantly white British, over the 1990s the ethnic minority population of Sheffield has grown by 80% to 45,000 individuals (Office for National Statistics, 2001). 2.2. Sampling To assess social class, this study focused on 83 Key Stage 3 (aged 11–14) school children. Children were selected for this study for two reasons: (1) they tend to reflect the prevailing norms from their home environment and (2) they may carry their opinions and views through to adulthood, thus shaping the future issues that may confront park managers. The pupils in this study were from two very different schools, chosen to reflect the class diversity within Sheffield. Just over half of the children came from Waltheof School (n ¼ 44), which is situated to the east of the inner-city in a typically working class area. The remaining children came from Tapton School (n ¼ 39), which is situated in the affluent, middle class western suburbs of Sheffield. Both schools are predominantly white in terms of ethnicity. The latest Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) report showed 76% of pupils at Waltheof School

were white (Office for Standards in Education, 2001). Similarly the 2007 OFSTED report (Office for Standards in Education, 2007) for Tapton School states that the ‘‘majority of students are white British, with a quarter of the students coming from a variety of black and minority ethnic backgrounds.’’ To assess the perceptions of black and ethnic minorities, this study focused on 40 members of Sheffield’s ethnic minority community. The 40 participants belonged to one of two groups of 20 people each. The first group had worked with the Sheffield Wildlife Trust as part of an environmental outreach programme designed to increase ethnic minority participation in the countryside. The second was an ethnic minority social group who had no organised contact with the environment. The goal here was to understand the perceptions of the natural environment held by Sheffield’s ethnic minority population, and to assess the impact that an environmental outreach programme had on these groups. 2.3. Data collection To elicit opinions on the natural environment, this research used four sets of photographs each of which represented a different type of environmental recreation space. The first was of the Peak District moors (representing wilderness), an urban park (semi-natural), a botanical garden (staged natural), and a shopping mall (built and unnatural). These specific images were chosen based on Schivelbusch’s (1986: 197) observation that ‘‘for the twentieth century tourist, the world has become one large department store of countrysides and cities’’. In the post-modern world, the ‘natural’ and the ‘unnatural’ sit together to form a pastiche of choices for leisure and recreation.

Fig. 1. Map showing proximity of Peak District National Park to the city of Sheffield (Googlemaps, 2007).

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These photographs were used in a number of different ways. First, to determine how the children perceived the moors, a mixed methods approach was used where all respondents (n ¼ 83) were given a four-page questionnaire that elicited responses based on the photographs. Each set of photographs was accompanied by a series of five-point Likert scale questions designed to gauge the respondent’s opinions, perceptions or preconceived notions of the space in question. The statements concerned the following issues: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

a a a a a a a

sense of belonging perception of the space as dull (or not dull) perception of the space as scary (or not scary) sense of personal safety desire to visit the area perceived sense that accessing the space will be easy feeling that the space could be a fun place to visit

The respondents rated each statement by selecting one of the following options; (1) strongly agree; (2) agree; (3) not sure; (4) disagree and (5) strongly disagree. The scale score was obtained by summing the responses to each item, taking into account scale reversals for negative items. Second, to further explore the children’s perceptions, individual and informal interviews were carried out in a relaxed setting (n ¼ 15). In this context, each pupil was presented with the four sets of pictures used in the questionnaires, each of which had been mounted on card and laid out on a table. A central question, ‘How do you feel about these four places and why?’ was established and 6 follow up questions were asked in order to generate a discussion: 1. If you could go to any of these places tomorrow, which place would you choose to go to? 2. Why is this place your favourite place? 3. What activities would you do at this place? 4. Which place would you least like to go? 5. Why would you least like to go to this place? 6. What activities would you do at this place? The respondent was then asked three questions about each of the two remaining sets of photographs, which had not been chosen as the best or worst place. They were; 1. What do you especially like about this place? 2. What do you dislike about this place? 3. What activities would you do at this place? With specific regard to the moors the respondents were asked; 1. If you wanted to go to this place, how would you get there? To assess the perceptions of the two ethnic minority groups, a similar questionnaire to the one from the school study was used. In addition, research used a focus group methodology with the two predominately black community groups. These focus groups had three stages all of which were facilitated by the researcher. Firstly, in an open discussion, participants were asked to talk about their awareness and perceptions of the PDNP. Secondly, participants were asked to order the pictures used in the questionnaire, in terms of feelings of beauty, safety, isolation and solitude. Thirdly, and with the help of an Ordinance Survey map, participants were asked to design their ideal PDNP, in terms of the facilities available. Quantitative results were analysed using SPSS. A Kruskal–Wallis One-Way Analysis of Variance test was performed to establish the significance of the differences between the two groups in each case study. A Mann–Whitney U test was performed to analyse the significance of the variations of perceptions between the groups.

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Qualitative results were based on transcriptions from interviews and focus groups and analysed using a Grounded Theory approach. Grounded Theory is a method designed to help researchers collect and analyse data in order to develop theoretical models that help explain social phenomena. To do this, transcripts were made of all proceedings and analysed through a coding process that added key words to specific quotes. These key words then became the basis for the analysis (see Corbin and Strauss, 1990; Glaser and Strauss, 1967). These two studies (the first with children of different classes and the second with two ethnic minority groups with different exposure to the environment) were conducted independently of each other and were used as distinct and separate pieces of research. No attempt was made to compare results between the study on class with the results on ethnic background. The reason for this was to triangulate how the background (however defined) of a potential park visitor might shape their perceptions of the park. In this, we hope to provide an empirical base through which to explore how policy and park-land management might need to shift to actively reflect the diverse needs and perceptions of all potential visitors. 3. Results 3.1. Background to respondents The two schools showed considerable differences in terms of social class. To evaluate social class, students were asked about their parents’ occupations. Using the Office for National Statistics (2000) Standard Occupational Classification, numerical values were given to occupations where 10 ¼ the ‘highest’ social position and 1 ¼ the ‘lowest’ social position. With a mean social class of 5.8 between the schools, children at Waltheof School had below average scores (mean score for Waltheof ¼ 3.8) and the children at Tapton School were above average (mean score for Tapton ¼ 8.1) (see Table 1). In the focus groups, the majority of respondents were of black/ black British ethnicity (see Table 2). Within these groups, ethnicities were largely stated as Caribbean or African. Other ethnicities were fewer in number and mixed race respondents were evenly Table 1 Background of school aged children interviewed Waltheof

Tapton

Total

% (n ¼ 44)

% (n ¼ 39)

% (n ¼ 83)

Gender Male Female

59.1 40.9

61.5 38.5

60.2 39.8

Ethnicity White Asian Black No answer

65.9 13.6 2.3 18.2

79.5 16.3 5.1 5.1

72.3 12.0 3.6 12.0

Social class 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 (Unemployed)

0 0 2 7 22.7 13.6 7 10 13.6 25

0 60 26.3 0 8 5.2 0 0 0 2.5

0 28 13.4 3.6 15.8 9.7 3.6 4.8 7.3 15.8

Mean social classa Mean age (yrs)

3.8 12.7

8.1 13.4

5.8 13

a Social class 1 represents the lowest social position (unemployed), while social class 10 represents the highest social position.

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Table 2 Participant background for BME groups Group 1

Group 2

Total

% (n ¼ 20)

% (n ¼ 20)

% (n ¼ 40)

Gender Male Female

45 55

55 45

50 50

Ethnicity White Asian Black Mixed No answer

0 20 60 20 0

0 5 75 20 0

0 12.5 67.5 20 0

Average age (years)

39.6

33.3

36.5

spread. The difference in ethnic origin between the two groups is statistically insignificant (p > 0.5). 3.2. Access to park Questionnaires revealed that students from the ‘higher’ social class school (Tapton) had visited the moors, the botanical garden and the urban park more than the children at Waltheof School (p < 0.05). There was no difference between groups in the number of visits to the mall. It does not seem that physical or financial barriers limit access to the moors for students from the working class school. In both populations, the car was the pupils’ main form of transport, although there was a higher incidence of car use at Tapton School – 70.5% of children at Waltheof used the car as their primary method of transport, compared to 92% of children at Tapton. The fact that in both groups the car is cited as the main form of transport suggests that it is simplistic to assume that working class children are not taken to the countryside due to lack of access. In addition, the Waltheof pupils appear to have more experience of using public transport than the Tapton pupils, suggesting that it is not a lack of experience of using public transport that is preventing them going to the park. Perceptions of how easy access would be also differed by school. When asked ‘‘how would you get to the moors?’’ the children from Tapton were able to provide detailed answers. For example, one boy, aged 13, from Tapton said ‘‘I’d go up the snake pass. a long and windy road through Glossop’’ while a 14-year old girl from Tapton suggested, ‘‘I’d go up the road outside my house and I’d get the bus into the moors and then it stops at a bit that’s good for walking and stuff.’’ In general, the children at Waltheof provided much less detail when asked how they would access the moors. However, all children stated that their parents would willingly take them to the moors if they asked them. For example, a 13-year old girl from Waltheof said, ‘‘My Granddad likes places like that [the moors]. I could go with him if I wanted.but I wouldn’t want to go’’ while a 12-year old girl from Waltheof said, ‘‘Yeah.someone would take me in the car if I wanted to go.’’ In the ethnic minority focus groups, 13 respondents from the environmentally oriented group had been to the moors in the previous year as compared to only 5 respondents from the nonenvironmental group (p < 0.01). Nevertheless, virtually all participants from both groups had access to cars (or could obtain rides from people who did own cars). Therefore, it seems that there is more than a simple access barrier that prevents these groups from visiting the park. 3.3. Perceptions of place From the working class school, 78.5% of the children rated the photograph of the moors as their least preferred place to visit. This

opinion was expressed by only 50% of the children at the middle class school (p < 0.05). By contrast the shopping mall was the most favoured by 57% of the children at the working class school but only 20% of the children at the middle class school rated the mall first. These results, which are statistically significant (p < 0.01) highlight the differences between the social classes. These opinions were broadly confirmed by the qualitative analysis. For example, one pupil from the middle class school said ‘‘I really love shopping but not really on a day like today because it’s a nice day – it’s quite hot. The moors or the park would be better to go to . I like the moors. I just like it!’’ At the working class school, typical comments included ‘‘I’d pick the shops [as my favourite place] ’cos I don’t really like any of the others.’’ When rated as to whether the respondent felt the locations in the different pictures provided a sense of belonging, whether they wanted to visit it, or whether the area was dull, scary etc., there were significant differences with the middle class students ranking the moors statistically more favourably than students from the working class school (p < 0.05). The interviews revealed that these opinions were often based on perceptions of recreational opportunity in each place. For example, the opinions expressed by the pupils at the middle class school revealed that they held positive perceptions of the recreational opportunities offered by the park. Those children actively sought out peace, tranquillity and solitude. As one pupil at the middle class school said ‘‘[at the moors] you get to do what you want. It’s peaceful and quiet and it’s good to go to think about something.’’ By contrast, the opinions of the pupils at the working class school revealed that they wanted something else from a possible moorland experience. One pupil commented, ‘‘it’s nice views.it looks tranquil. That’s good if you’re into all that but I like it noisy.’’ There were no statistically significant differences between the two schools when asked about the other places. The botanical garden, park, and mall were all viewed in roughly the same way by all respondents. Fig. 2 illustrates Likert mean scores for each of the four groups of photographs averaged across all seven questions. In the ethnicity study, overall, the group involved in the outreach project had a more positive perception of all the places than the control group. The only exception was for perceptions of the mall where the difference was not significant (p < 0.05, see Fig. 3). Unsurprisingly, the environmental group rated the photograph of

Working Class School - Walthe of School Middle Class School - Tapton School 5 a

4.5 4

a a

a

a

a

b

3.5

Likert Mean

1200

3

a

2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 Botanical Garden

Moors

Park

Mall

Photograph Fig. 2. Mean Likert scores assigned to groups of photographs depicting (1) a botanical garden, (2) a moorland, (3) an urban park and (4) a shopping mall by students from two economically distinct schools (n ¼ 83). Higher scores indicate a more favourable overall reaction to the photograph. Columns with different letters are statistically significant (p < 0.05).

N. Suckall et al. / Journal of Environmental Management 90 (2009) 1195–1203

Environmentally Oriented Focus Group Focus Group with no Environmental Orientation a a

4.5 4

a

Likert Mean

b b

3.5

a

a

3 b

2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 Botanical Garden

Moors

Park

Mall

Photograph Fig. 3. Mean Likert scores assigned to groups of photographs depicting (1) a botanical garden, (2) a moorland, (3) an urban park and (4) a shopping mall by participants in two BME focus groups (n ¼ 40). Higher scores indicate a more favourable reaction to the photograph. Columns with different letters are statistically significant (p < 0.05).

the moors as their favourite place, whereas the control group ranked the photograph of the moors last (difference between groups is significant, p < 0.05). This view was echoed during the focus groups; for example, a typical comment from the environmental group included ‘‘[The Park is] good for people who need to relax after a hard day’s work’’ while another stated, ‘‘It’s good to get away from the city.’’ Comments made by members of the non-environmental group suggest a general lack of awareness about the region: ‘‘I’ve never been because I don’t know where it is’’ and ‘‘I do not know how to get there.’’ During the focus groups, the environmental group expressed a high degree of happiness with the recreational opportunity offered by the PDNP and cited countryside recreation as a favourite activity. Typical comments included ‘‘[The facilities] cater for a wide range of tastes with a wide range of activities.’’ On the other hand, the non-environmental group was largely dissatisfied with the activities on offer. A general perception was that the PDNP is lacking in children’s facilities and the introduction of playgrounds at suitable sites seemed a popular idea. Farm-based activities were also a popular idea amongst this group. 4. Discussion Overall, the results from this study support the theory that belonging to a particular group (either class or ethnicity based) influences the decision to access ‘natural’ places. The results also suggest that something more than just a lack of means creates barriers that prevent some groups from deriving the same enjoyment from the landscape as others. However, the results show that groups who previously have had no historic connection with a specific type of landscape, such as new immigrants to the UK, may change their opinions. These empirical findings are broadly consistent with large scale studies conducted in association with the PDNP where three quarters of visitors cite the landscape and the associated peace and tranquillity as the primary reason for visiting (Moors for the Future, 2004). By contrast, non-visitors say there is ‘no particular reason’ for their absence or that they are ‘simply not interested’ (National Centre for Social Research, 1998). Taken together, these studies and the results presented here, could suggest that non-visitors may simply not desire to experience the ‘peace and tranquillity’ of the

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moors. Or, perhaps it could indicate that for those who choose not to visit, the moors do not inspire this ‘peace and tranquillity’. Therefore, it may be the case that when looking at the moors, the children from Waltheof School are gazing at something different from the children at Tapton School and similarly, the ethnic minority group with no experience of the moors is gazing at something different from the group with experience. To use these results to better manage landscapes, we need to develop a more sophisticated understanding of ‘place’ in a multicultural, cosmopolitan, and economically diverse country. For example, Johnston (1991) argues that all places are social creations and that different places differ because people have made them do so. It could, therefore, be argued that those who visit the moors do so because they are part of this act of social creation. They are part of the self-reproduction of the moors as a landscape in which people learn to nurture a particular set of beliefs and attitudes with regard to a type of environment. In this way, the moors transmit an ideology and identity, replicating white, middle class attitudes on what is beautiful and natural. If this is true, and the evidence presented here suggests it is, then it is easy to see how groups who do not share a Romantic attitude towards aesthetics and nature may be excluded, even if it is apparently through a personal ‘choice’. The most apparent contrast with a Romantic landscape in the locale of Sheffield is a shopping mall, which is an ideal place to observe a more ‘collective’ approach to leisure. A shopping mall is more than just a place where material goods can be consumed and Fox (2005) states, for many people shopping malls ‘‘. nurture the soul and the society, not just the body and economy.’’ Bauman (1998: 26) talks of the impact consumerism has had on less affluent members of society, where ‘‘the road to self-identity, to a place in society, to life lived in a form recognisable as that of meaningful living, all require daily visits to the market place. one needs to be a consumer first, before one can think of becoming anything in particular.’’ Identities are created in the mall and, like the moors, the mall can act as an ideology transmitter. Unlike the moors, however, with the Romantic emphasis on solitary reflection, the mall helps transform the ideology of consumerism into a definition of beauty through a form of collective identity. Certainly, most of the children at both schools are consumers of this mass identity and all appeared to feel an affinity towards the mall. However, the children at Tapton School appreciated that the mall was only one experience open to them and their desire to consume was offset by their desire to experience other places. As one pupil at Tapton said ‘‘Yeah, I could have a good time [at the mall]. It’s inside so it’s good for a bad day. If it was a nice day I’d do something outside though.’’ As Lindridge et al.’s (2005) study of hip-hop culture in AfroCaribbean groups shows, consumerism has also done well at incorporating certain ethnic groups. In the ethnicity study, the mall scored highly for both groups. In particular, the group with no history of participation in the moors scored the mall as their favourite place and the moors as their least favourite. Walking for reflective purposes, which is an activity the Romantics took very seriously, did not appeal to the Waltheof children. They appeared to crave a more active and collective activity that could be enjoyed as a group. Many of the children at Waltheof School (and none of those at Tapton School) expressed a desire to chase the sheep. The desire to chase sheep is perhaps symbolic of a desire to be involved in a collective and ‘fun’ pursuit. Similarly, none of the respondents in the non-environmental ethnic minority focus group thought the moors offered them facilities or experiences they would enjoy. There appeared to be no correlation between enjoyment of the moors and enjoyment of the botanical gardens, adding strength to the notion that for those who enjoy the moors, the area is about more than flora and fauna.

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5. Conclusion As Stendhal (1822 [1975]: 66) eloquently stated ‘‘beauty is nothing other than the promise of happiness.’’ For those who find beauty in the Peak District moors, they are buying into the promise of a lifestyle that will bring them joy. For those who see the moors as a barren wasteland, there is no hint that being part of this landscape will add anything of value to their lives. However irrelevant this may seem, it remains the case that many of those who see no value in the PDNP have some influence over the park’s future. Therefore, their view of the park as valueless could be seen as a threat to those who want to maintain the landscapes of Britain’s cultural past, and it is undoubtedly the responsibility of the park’s management to solve this problem. If it is the case that the current management of the PDNP results in the exclusion of certain groups (as the results from this paper suggests it is), then it is up to management to explore alternative approaches. An exploration of the three management strategies noted in the introduction to this paper (education, regulation and legislation) may be a good starting point for developing an alternative approach to park management. However these strategies are not without issue. Firstly, implicit in the idea that attitudes can be changed through education is the assumption that there is only one way that the moors should be enjoyed – through the eyes of the Romantics. The idea of changing the gaze of a whole section of society is laden with value judgements. Secondly, whilst deregulation of the park may attract a more diverse range of visitors, it may also create discontent among the ‘Romantics’. As Walter (1982) points out ‘‘Romanticism exalts solitude’’, and for those Romantics this is the only way they know to enjoy nature. Thirdly, legislation may serve to conserve the park, but this may be at the expense of those who enjoy roaming freely and undermine both conservation and local people’s needs. Acknowledgements The authors would like to acknowledge the generous support of Moors for the Future and the Rural Economy and Land Use Programme for funding this work. The Moors for the Future Partnership is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund (http:// www.moorsforthefuture.org) and the Rural Economy and Land Use Programme is funded jointly by the Economic and Social Research Council, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the Natural Environment Research Council, with additional funding from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department. Specifically, the authors are funded through the Rural Economy and Land Use project RES-224-25-0088 and ES/ E017479/1. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the funding bodies. Thanks also go to Jessica Robinson for helping with interviews, the staff and students at Waltheof and Tapton schools and the members of the focus groups. Thanks also go to Dr. Andrew Dougill and Dr. Joseph Murphy, at the University of Leeds, and three anonymous reviewers for thoughtful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. References Agyeman, J., Spooner, R., 1997. Ethnicity and the rural environment. In: Cloke, P., Little, J. (Eds.), Contested Countryside Cultures: Otherness, Marginalisation and Rurality. Routledge, London, pp. 197–217. Agyeman, J., 1995. Environment, heritage and multiculturalism. Journal of the Association of Heritage Interpretation 1 (1), 5–6. Bauman, Z., 1998. Work, Consumerism and the New Poor. Open University Press, Buckingham and Philadelphia. Berry, J.W., 1980. Social and cultural change. In: Triandis, H.C., Brislin, R.W. (Eds.), Handbook of Cross-Cultural Psychology: Social Psychology. Allyn and Bacon, Boston, pp. 211–279.

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