KLGO Data

Attracting over one million visitors per year, Alaska, and by extension the Arctic, commonly characterized as cold, remote, rugged and, above all, natural (Kollin, 2001), captures the imagination as the “last frontier.” The notion of these places, including what is “the natural,” or the social construction of these places, influences the ways in which people expect to experience them when visiting. And, by extension, these ideas of nature play directly into tensions of land use, whether for preservation, conservation or resource extraction. In parallel fashion, interacting with nature is widely viewed as healthy, although also a socially constructed concept, and so too superimposes preconceived notions onto engagement with nature. With the explicit goal of “creating healthy outdoor recreation” opportunities and as places where many people seek to experience nature, U.S. National Parks act as a focal point where complex interpretations of the health-nature nexus play out. Because of its unique location as a gateway to the Arctic Region and as a historical gold mining access point into the interior situated in a picturesque natural setting at the water’s edge, Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park (KLGO) offers a particularly relevant place to explore the intricacies of the health-nature connection. This proposed research seeks to understand how the social construction of “nature” and “health” each play a role in the ordering of what, and by extension who, is deemed to be healthy and unhealthy in KLGO, exploring how park users experience and perceive health benefits associated with engaging KLGO. Importantly, rangers’ and park managers’ views will be examined because of the symbolic, cultural and economic power National Park Service (NPS) employees hold in this context, often acting as a filter to what visitors experience.

每年接待超百万游客的阿拉斯加及其延伸区域北极地区，常被描述为寒冷、偏远、粗犷且最核心的"原生态"（Kollin，2001），作为"最后边疆"唤起人们的无限遐想。这类区域的相关认知——包括何为"原生态"，或是对这些区域的社会建构——影响着游客到访时的体验预期。进而，这类关于自然的认知直接催生了土地利用的矛盾分歧，涉及原生保护、生态保育与资源开采等各类土地利用行为。与此同时，尽管"亲近自然有益健康"本身也是一种社会建构的概念，但这一观点仍被广泛认同，并同样将先入为主的观念强加于人们的自然互动行为之中。美国国家公园以"打造健康户外休闲体验"为明确目标，同时也是众多游客寻求自然体验的目的地，因此成为健康与自然关联的复杂阐释得以具象呈现的核心场域。作为通往北极地区的门户，同时也是通往内陆的历史淘金通道，且坐落于滨水如画的自然环境中，克朗代克淘金热国家历史公园（Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park，KLGO）为探究健康与自然关联的复杂内涵提供了极具代表性的研究场域。本项拟开展的研究旨在厘清，在KLGO中，"自然"与"健康"的社会建构如何分别作用于"何为健康"乃至"谁可被视为健康"的秩序建构，并探究公园游客如何体验与感知参与KLGO相关活动所带来的健康益处。尤为重要的是，本研究还将考察公园护林员与管理人员的观点——鉴于美国国家公园管理局（National Park Service，NPS）工作人员在此场景中拥有符号、文化与经济层面的话语权，他们往往是游客体验的过滤把关者。