– for the Trailology Collective
What is trailology?
Trailology is the study of trails.
Trails are the domain of everyone; they appear in the wake of human and animal movement, and are present, if not always noticed, in virtually every aspect of life on earth.
Trailology employs a broad view of trails that does not insist on a single definition. For our purposes, trailology deals with paths and trails of many kinds: human and animal, urban and rural, recreational and commercial, sacred and secular, physical and virtual, terrestrial and aquatic, pedestrian and non-pedestrian. Our conception of trails is not limited to that of a particular country, culture, or tradition.
Trailology begins as the study of trails in any practical or academic discipline: not only in the natural sciences or among professional trail developers, but also in the social sciences, the humanities, and the arts. We aim to employ the existing tools and methodologies of various disciplines toward a few common ends:
- to place trails at the center of scholarly inquiry;
- to collect and aggregate extant trail research;
- to develop a shared space and a cross-disciplinary language for discussing and studying trails;
- to explore new ways of understanding trails.
Trailology will become the sum total of these efforts and their outcomes. As trailology takes shape as a field, it will give rise to its own communities, terminologies, methods, gatherings, publishing outlets, and bodies of knowledge. Academic researchers and trail practitioners alike will be better able to study trails as phenomena unto themselves: as primal interfaces between living creatures and the planet. As we study and share knowledge on trails more effectively, we hope to better understand and improve how humans and other sentient beings move and live in the world.
Why is trailology important?
Trailology is important because trails are important. As fundamental contact points between people, animals, and the earth, trails are continually renewed through use: they respond to changes in the landscape, overwrite obsolete or vanished trails, grow in new directions, circumvent structures designed to block them, and subvert highways meant to supplant them.
Human paths and pathologies are intertwined; trails lie deep in our collective memory, guide our ways of thinking, follow our desires and curiosities, symbolize our lives and conduct, and lead us to dwell on existential questions. Trails inform our understanding of topics as diverse as ecology, history, health, politics, anthropology, philosophy, literature, geography, botany, and economics. Trails connect with the most pressing issues regarding the future of the planet. Trails are worth studying, and trailology facilitates their study.
Trailology is important because it broadens and deepens existing conversations about trails. The natural sciences have developed organized approaches to studying trails. Trail builders have developed scientifically-informed best practices for construction, waymarking, and maintenance. Researchers of tourism ecology and outdoor recreation have developed methodologies for assessing trails’ economic and environmental impact. We believe such systematic approaches can spread into new areas, enabling scholars across a range of fields to engage trails on their own terms, and return to cross-pollinate conversations.
Though scholars of the social sciences and humanities have barely begun to study trails, popular voices have given us some of the most brilliant insights on the origins, nature, and meanings of trails. Similarly, artists, poets, and philosophers have given us fundamental axioms by which we understand walking and trails. Trailology seeks to follow those who study trails now, to blaze new paths that connect networks of scholars, and establish base camps of discussion, debate, and discovery.
Conclusion
All “trail people” can join the conversation about how trails can shape the future of the world. Powerful visions for trails and what they may say about pressing issues for humanity are best defined and articulated collaboratively. Hence the endeavor of trailology. Trailology seeks to create spaces for airing ideas, discussing them, and moving the trail conversation forward.