The senses-in-action: visual and haptic encounters with occasioned environments

This chapter advances the sociology of the senses by developing a radical praxeological approach to the perceptual availability of landscapes and environments, particularly within the context of orienteering. In challenging traditional views of passive perception, it emphasises how environments are actively produced through sensory practices tied to specific tasks. Drawing on ethnomethodology and natural language sociology, the chapter explores how sensory experiences are socially and contextually accomplished rather than merely communicated. Through the analysis of video materials gathered from an orienteering race, the chapter examines how features of the environment, such as fences and stiles, become practical resources for navigation, occasioning shifts in perception and action relating to the work of route-finding. Additionally, it discusses how haptic encounters, and specifically being stung by a plant, reconfigure the perceptual field, leading to shifts in aspect and environmental awareness. The chapter ultimately argues for a reflexive understanding of sensory practices as integral to the dynamic accomplishment of the environment-in-action.