Rights statement: This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of Rural Studies. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Journal of Rural Studies, 51, 2017 DOI: 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2016.06.004
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Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Interpreting therapeutic landscape experiences through rural stroke survivors’ biographies of disruption and flow
AU - Meijering, Louise
AU - Lettinga, Ant T.
AU - Nanninga, Christa S.
AU - Milligan, Christine
N1 - This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of Rural Studies. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Journal of Rural Studies, 51, 2017 DOI: 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2016.06.004
PY - 2017/4/30
Y1 - 2017/4/30
N2 - This article utilizes the concepts of biographical disruption and biographical flow to expand understandings of how a therapeutic engagement with the rural landscape may change over time for individual stroke survivors. In doing so, it explores how the rural landscape can be experienced as both a therapeutic and a non-therapeutic landscape. The paper draws on in-depth interviews with nineteen stroke survivors living in rural areas in the Northern Netherlands. Because of the cognitively and physically disabling changes that can occur as a result of stroke, interviewees’ stories revealed complex and often contradictory experiences of the rural, post-stroke, that varied significantly from their pre-stroke experiences. Our findings demonstrate that the rural holds potential to function as a therapeutic landscape for stroke survivors, especially through its enabling natural and social characteristics. However, the different physical, social, natural, and healthcare aspects of the rural can also disrupt stroke survivors’ individual biographies and their sense of self. The privileging of place in these biographies may provide important insights that can help improve the practice of stroke care. It also leads us to conclude that the concepts of biographical flow and disruption, though useful, need to take into account the influence of the wider (spatial) context. We thus coin the terms bio-geo-graphical flow and bio-geo-graphical disruption, and suggest that these may more accurately reflect the spatio-temporal disruptions and flows experienced by stroke survivors in the post-stroke period.
AB - This article utilizes the concepts of biographical disruption and biographical flow to expand understandings of how a therapeutic engagement with the rural landscape may change over time for individual stroke survivors. In doing so, it explores how the rural landscape can be experienced as both a therapeutic and a non-therapeutic landscape. The paper draws on in-depth interviews with nineteen stroke survivors living in rural areas in the Northern Netherlands. Because of the cognitively and physically disabling changes that can occur as a result of stroke, interviewees’ stories revealed complex and often contradictory experiences of the rural, post-stroke, that varied significantly from their pre-stroke experiences. Our findings demonstrate that the rural holds potential to function as a therapeutic landscape for stroke survivors, especially through its enabling natural and social characteristics. However, the different physical, social, natural, and healthcare aspects of the rural can also disrupt stroke survivors’ individual biographies and their sense of self. The privileging of place in these biographies may provide important insights that can help improve the practice of stroke care. It also leads us to conclude that the concepts of biographical flow and disruption, though useful, need to take into account the influence of the wider (spatial) context. We thus coin the terms bio-geo-graphical flow and bio-geo-graphical disruption, and suggest that these may more accurately reflect the spatio-temporal disruptions and flows experienced by stroke survivors in the post-stroke period.
KW - Therapeutic landscape
KW - Stroke survivors
KW - Biographical disruption and biographical flow
KW - Qualitative methods
KW - Rural areas
KW - The Netherlands
U2 - 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2016.06.004
DO - 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2016.06.004
M3 - Journal article
VL - 51
SP - 275
EP - 283
JO - Journal of Rural Studies
JF - Journal of Rural Studies
SN - 0743-0167
ER -