‘The Mighty Macaulay’: The Analysis of a Therapeutic Taskscape, Disciplinary Regulation and Care at a Camp for Underprivileged Youth

Abstract

Ethnographic research and interviews at a summer camp for underprivileged youth in Westchester County, New York state suggests that therapeutic landscapes can be effectively theorised as “taskscapes” (Ingold, 1993: 153). Whilst recent scholarship has provided a hedonistic perspective of therapeutic landscapes, this research analyses the mode of regulation within these milieux by extending upon concepts from neoliberal critique literature. This project critically examines the production of staff and camper behaviours within this space and suggests that certain components of this taskscape fail. This research proposes that close attention should be paid to the mechanisms through which certain comportments are produced within this space.