Restorative Counter-Spacing for Academic Sustainability

By combining pertinent theories from environmental psychology and human geography, this article proposes a socio-spatial framework of principles, which could be used by academic actors, to reflexively embody and critically enact a bio-cultural connection. It contributes to an emerging line of research, which explores the importance of deepening attachments to local natural settings. By reflecting on an auto-ethnographic, personal account of a “Whale Watching” experience and indicative international university initiatives such as the “Oberlin Project” in the United States and the “University in a Garden” in Malaysia, the article illustrates these principles as both an institutional and an individual signpost for academic sustainability.