One of us thought we were going to talk about the nature of nature - what is it we’re thinking about when we think about nature? The other thought we were going to talk about barefoot shoes for strength training. This is our synthesis.

Barefoot shoes promise a return to a “natural” way of walking, to the way we evolved to walk. They’re made from “natural” materials. And “natural” is assumed to be a good thing, it contains a value judgement. The use of the categories “natural” and “unnatural” is fundamental to the way we see the world today, and it is interesting to interrogate where this categorisation came from, how valid it is, and what it means.

Isn’t nature beautiful, we think as we look at the English countryside - but it’s not natural. Fields are not natural. Crops are not natural. Sheep can’t give birth withou ...