Forum Talk: Swimming with Care at Windermere
Speaker: Taylor Butler-Eldridge, PhD Researcher, Human Geography, University of Exeter.
Abstract: Windermere, in the Lake District National Park, attracts regular outdoor swimming practice, often motivated by exercise, competition, socialisation, joy, and perceptions of restorative well-being. However, swimmers at Windermere also negotiate environmental health risks, notably concerning algal blooms, wastewater, plastic pollution, and biosecurity. These risks can often generate notions and needs for care – among swimmers, their communities, and with these shared spaces. But how does ‘taking care’ look and feel? Who is responsible? And can practices of care be both beneficial and detrimental? To illustrate the complexities of swimming with care at Windermere, this presentation reflects on a co-produced zine by Taylor Butler-Eldridge, Bethan Thorsby, and the ‘swim-along’ interview responses of 40 swimmers and dippers during a 12-month wet ethnographic enquiry. This zine and presentation stories the social and environmental tensions of swimming ‘for’ human wellness alongside accounts and representations of ill-health at Windermere – highlighting senses of ambivalence, adaptation, and avoidance within the regular swimming communities.
