ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the strands of outdoor studies, making the important connections among key threads including education, leisure, physical culture, sport, the outdoor environment and practice. Outdoor studies is the term that fruitfully encompasses a broad range of approaches, foci and methods such as, but not limited to, experiential learning, adventure education, organised camps, environmental education, outdoor leadership, nature-based sport and wilderness therapy. The book also presents a range of viewpoints from authors from different disciplines and geographical areas and highlights the broad range of contexts, understandings and approaches that make up outdoor studies. It focuses on understanding and potentially transforming human interaction within and with the environment or non-human world. The book describes what outdoor studies means in their contexts, and highlights the underlying, and oft times unspoken, differences and hegemonies among the viewpoints and perspectives.
