Shay Rabineau
Associate Professor, Department of Judaic Studies, Binghamton University (SUNY)
New York, United States
András J. Molnár
Co-Founder, Pilgrimage Academy, Viatorum Trail Experts
Research Fellow, HUN-REN SZTAKI
Budapest, Hungary
What directions might trailology take as it develops into a field of study?
The current state of trail research can be understood in two categories: the sciences and the humanities. See a more detailed list in the Appendix following this chapter.
- Sciences: Trails have already provided fertile ground for academics in certain fields. A quick review of Google Scholar using the search term “hiking trails” yields more than 90,000 articles and citations, with the most relevant appearing in journals on tourism management and outdoor recreation, environmental monitoring and impact, and ecology and wildlife conservation. Much work, then, has been done in these areas, and yet none of it has been published in a space dedicated solely or primarily to trails. Trails, so far, have mainly been approached by scholars as a mere epiphenomenon, rather than a phenomenon meriting an academic field.
- Humanities: In other fields, especially in the humanities, very little scholarship has taken place, despite enormous popular interest in trail-related books. In English, memoirs from Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods to Cheryl Strayed’s Wild have brought trails like the Appalachian Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail to the New York Times bestseller list. Non-fiction bestsellers like Rebecca Solnit’s Wanderlust and Robert Moor’s On Trails have connected trails with history, politics, philosophy, art and architecture, anthropology, and literature in engaging ways that seem to have eluded professional academics. Little scholarly research connects trails to any of these fields, perhaps for lack of an appropriate interdisciplinary space.
Trailology enables information on trails to be gathered into a unified body of knowledge. Just as individual disciplines have their own literatures, trailology as a field of study can give rise to its own body of literature. Moreover, trailology facilitates the growth and development of a common, cross-disciplinary language in which further study can take place. It articulates the boundaries of a space, a field of study, a community of practitioners and scholars, in which information is shared. It becomes a lens through which other trail-like phenomena, or things related to trails, can be examined as well. It describes methods of using trails themselves as conduits for gathering knowledge about the world. Over time, trailology constitutes a body of trail-related scholarly output: a collection of “trailologies” of countries, people groups, ecosystems, economic systems, and so on.
Trailology depends on connections among individuals and institutions, and the free flow of information through networks of researchers and practitioners. Potential hubs and nodes in the network include universities and their relevant departments, academic conferences, non-profit trail organizations, government agencies and park management, land owners and stewards, volunteer groups, associations of professional trail developers, gear companies, advocacy groups, and so on. Our hope is that the concept of trailology will foster stronger connections between such institutions, and that new trailology-based institutions will take shape as a result.
Journals, books, conferences, art exhibitions, musical collections, spoken-word performances, networks of walkable routes: just as everyday paths form anarchically, one can only guess at the form Trailology: Volume One Hundred may take, or when it may appear. Likewise, one can only guess at the kind of world that may exist when such a volume is unveiled. The goal, between now and then, is that it and all of the volumes leading up to it, will critically engage the central questions relating to trails, and the ways in which trail issues are intertwined with the issues facing the worlds we inhabit.
Appendix: Topics Related to Trailology
Disciplines and fields of study intersecting with trailology, as referred to in Chapter 10, “Trailology and the Future”:
- Environmental studies – in general & particular
- Ecology, Conservation, Biodiversity, Wildlife
- Landscape ecology – in particular
- Transportation & Mobility
- Tourism, Visitor Management
- Economics, Business & Marketing
- Recreation, Health
- Accessibility
- Anthropology – various aspects
- Culture & Art – in general & particular
- Philosophy – various aspects
- Spirituality, Religious studies, Pilgrimage
- Literature, Storytelling
- History, Heritage
- Urban and Rural Planning
- Design – various aspects
- Geography – various aspects
- Cartography
- Political science
- Governance
- Behavioral sciences
- War & Refugees
- Sociology
- Mathematics – in general & particular
- Statistics, Combinatorics
- Network & Graph Theory
- Information Technology
- Semiotics
Applied trailologies: Trailology can be a space for evaluating field research practices and improving on them.
Aspects that trailologists may consider as potential focused study areas or projects:
- Trails in a Broad Sense
- Types and Functions of Trails
- Trails in Different Parts of the World
- Cross-Cultural Studies on Trails
- Socio- Economics of Trails
- Trails in Different Landscape Contexts
- Nature, Culture, Heritage and Trails
- Sacrality, Spirituality and Trails, Pilgrimage
- History of Trails & Related Organizations
- Trail Organization, Management and FR Models
- Visitor Monitoring & Management
- Visitor Motivations, Behaviour & Experience
- Role of Trails in the Touristic Experience
- Trail-Related Facilities
- Hospitality & Community Involvement Along Trails
- Trails & Mobility – Travel & Transport
- Trail Networks and Their Analysis
- Trail Design & Layout, Construction
- Trail Marking & Signage
- Trails & Technological Development
- Impacts of Trail Use
- Sustainability of/and Trails
- Trail Standards & Assessment Methods
- Trails Knowledge Base – Digital Library / Toolbox
- Best Practices & Pilot Developments
- Trail Field Schools Around the World
Note that these lists are not exhaustive; their aim is to give some insight and inspiration regarding the future potential of trailology.