Tag Archive for: landscape

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1261 | 473 | The personal-existential landscape identity and landscape change: reflections from three rural areas in Estonia | Kadri Kasemets; Hannes Palang

This presentation introduces the individually oriented landscape identity approach, the personal-existential identity of landscape, based on the Landscape Identity Circle created by Stobbelaar and Pedroli (2011). This view has a potential to bring together place-based visions that support regional distinctiveness and maintain continuity in the landscape, a significant knowledge for the policy makers. Here collectively invisible, yet individually significant places would have a potential to become socially acknowledged landscapes. We apply the personal-existential identity view with its four components (distinctiveness, continuity, self-esteem, and self-efficacy) to a historically rooted people based on three Estonian rural villages who have drawn on their place-bound memories and meanings to create an interconnected sense of self and materialised them in their surroundings. These meanings have materialised through the restoration of village borders, self-realisation in agriculture and civil governance, or enabling a particular place-bound lifestyle. Communicating self-oriented values connected to the place would strengthen locals’ continuity-oriented self-identity, self-esteem, and accordingly self-efficacy related to the area. Here is the significance of awareness about the ways of how one relates place attachment to the continuity of the self-concept, particularly in the areas of self-efficacy and self-actualisation. _x000D_
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Stobbelaar, D.J., & Pedroli, P. (2011). Perspectives on Landscape Identity: A Conceptual Challenge. Landscape Research, 36(3), 321–339._x000D_

Kadri Kasemets; Hannes Palang
Tallinn University, Centre for Landscape and Culture

 
ID Abstract: 473

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1248 | | Our heritage common future. A counter-hegemonic perspective on natural heritage landscapes. | Giovanna Di Matteo (1); Margherita Cisani (2)

The concept of heritage is imbued in the past, while projecting towards the future. Scholars have demonstrated that dominant groups have the power to define what is worth preserving; however, heritage as a social and cultural construct is dynamic and can be challenged and contested. Similarly, meanings assigned to landscape by society can also change over time.
By considering heritage as a politicised process it is possible to expand the discourse beyond the perspective of conservation, management, and valorisation of natural and cultural heritage, in order to consider processes of deconstruction, reconstruction, and co-construction of everyday heritage landscapes, recognizing the role of individuals and groups in providing multivocal and alternative perspectives towards a common future. 
This session draws from the concepts of authorised heritage discourse, heritage from below and counter-hegemonic discourse, which pose the challenge of taking into account the often hidden narratives of non-experts and ‘non-elites’, with attention to everyday and vernacular heritage, including decolonial and feminist heritage. In this sense, while there is an expanding literature concerning cultural heritage, less investigated is the perspective of natural or hybrid heritage.
Environmental geography and political ecology demonstrated that nature is a cultural concept that we use to understand the world. Thus, we wish to engage with heritage geographies which examine the connection between heritage, landscape, and nature, emphasising their interconnected, and cultural nature. Can we talk of heritage from below within so-called ‘natural landscapes’ and in what terms? Do individuals and communities participate in the definition of natural heritage or do they a-critically consume the idea of natural heritage defined by experts?
Within this frame we invite contributions that question the relationship between natural/cultural heritage (with particular attention to the first), landscape, tourism and recreational  mobilities, and informal and counter-hegemonic practices.

References:
Arregui A., Mackenthun G., Wodianka S. (Eds.), 2018, DEcolonial Heritage. Natures, Cultures, and the Asymmetries of Memory, Waxmann.
Castiglioni B., 2022, Paesaggio e società. Una prospettiva geografica, Carocci.
Cisani M., 2020, Paesaggi e mobilità. Strumenti per le geografie del quotidiano, FrancoAngeli.
Haraway D., 1991, Simians, Cyborgs, and Women. The Reinvention of Nature. Routledge.
Harvey D., Waterton E., 2015, “Editorial: Landscapes of Heritage and Heritage Landscapes”, Landscape Research, 40:8, pp. 905-910. 
Pettenati G. (Ed.), 2022, Landscape as Heritage: International Critical Perspectives, Taylor & Francis Ltd.
Robertson I., 2016, Heritage from Below, Routledge.
Smith L., 2008, “Heritage, Gender and Identity”, in Graham B., Howard P. (Eds.), The Ashgate Research Companion to Heritage and Identity, Ashgate, pp. 159-178. The session welcomes contributions in the form of presentations in English.

Giovanna Di Matteo (1); Margherita Cisani (2)
(1) Università degli Studi di Padova, (2) Università degli Studi di Padova

 
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1229 | | Geohumanities: creative geographies and artistic practices at a crossroads | Maria Lindmäe (1); Brian Rosa (2); Tauri Tuvikene (3); Aleksandra Ianchenko (4)

This panel invites papers that focus on the intersection of arts, culture and geographical research in addressing contemporary societal challenges, building on the tradition of geohumanities. We welcome papers that bring new knowledge of how artistic and cultural practices relate to, and intervene in the production of spaces, places, and landscapes. We are particularly interested in discussions relating to creative responses to the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change and other socio-ecological challenges, urban livelihoods, inequalities and mobilities, along with the methodological innovations and challenges brought forth through engagement with experimental methods and non-textual outputs. The session pushes forward exploration on how the emerging field of the geohumanities is manifested in Europe, how do we understand its value in relation to broader currents in geography, and how it relates to closely affiliated field of landscape research, urban studies and artistic research?
We welcome papers that include topics such as:

Creative practices for a sustainable future: how can the creative arts sector address climate change and convey actions for social and ecological sustainability.
New methodological approaches to doing geohumanities.
Theorizing the geohumanities and its relationship with broader currents in geography, the humanities, and creative practice.
(Post)-pandemic landscapes and culture: how have recent social changes influenced urban and rural landscape change and what is the role of geohumanities in addressing such changes.
Artistic and cultural practices emerging from (post)-pandemic urban to rural migration: challenges and impacts on the local communities.
The crossover between research-based arts practice, artistic research and creative methods within geography.
Formats and challenges to publishing and disseminating geohumanities research that engages with non-textual media.

We encourage presentations in different formats and media with a maximum length of 15 minutes. Please include the technological support you might need for your presentation together with a 250-word abstract and 3-5 keywords. The language of the session is English. The session will be done in the format of presentatons that may use different media and formats; the session language is English.

Maria Lindmäe (1); Brian Rosa (2); Tauri Tuvikene (3); Aleksandra Ianchenko (4)
(1) Pompeu Fabra Universty, (2) Pompeu Fabra University, (3) Tallinn University, (4) Tallinn University, Åbo Akademi University

 
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1172 | 979 | Consciously experiencing the landscape: Yoga retreat centres as transformers of the rural environment? | M.ª Aránzazu Pérez Indaverea

The practice of mindfulness is a tool for developing creativity (Castellanos, 2022). In this sense, yoga and related activities have gained increasing popularity. The format of retreats in nature and rural settings where an alternative lifestyle is experienced around these practices has become a trend in the West. This paper asks about the discourses projected onto the landscape by the promoters of yoga centres in the rural territory of the autonomous community of Galicia and what kind of dynamics they generate with their environment. Over the last two decades, yoga has gained popularity in Galicia. While the Galician countryside is demographically decreasing and ageing, we have been observing a growing trend towards the opening of yoga retreat centres and related practices in such environments. These centres activate a very specific discourse on the territory: slowing down the rhythms of life, getting back in touch with nature and encouraging respect for it, adopting healthy lifestyles and consuming local products. The profiles of the managers of these spaces are diverse, ranging from young local people seeking to reactivate environments to which they are attached to foreign professionals. Through the analysis of interviews with the conceptors of two yoga centres that are used as representative case studies, the presence in the media and visits to these spaces, we will expose the discourses that they project on the territory and to what extent these proposals contribute to rural development, as most cases aspire to and advertise.

M.ª Aránzazu Pérez Indaverea
Researcher of HAAYDU Group (GI-1510), Universidade de Santiago de Compostela

 
ID Abstract: 979

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1146 | | Navigating environmental uncertainty through language | Přemysl Mácha (1); Katalin Reszegi (2)

Newly emerging environments transformed by urban development, climate change, and migration present significant challenges in landscape perception and interpretation. The panel will explore the role of language in the way we make sense of the rapid changes in our surroundings at various scales and contexts.  Session in English.

The rapid changes in urban settings, transport, forestry, and agriculture associated with economic development, sustainable energy policies, climate change, and migration have transformed our familiar enviroments into strange new worlds which are often difficult to navigate at different scales. Where used to be a field there is a new residential area or a highway, on the horizon the silhouette of trees has been replaced by wind turbines, where once was a multitude of forests is but a multitude of clearings after trees fell victim to rising temperatures and uneven precipation, all the while the linguistic landscape has absorbed migrant languages which turn our cities into linguistic Babels. Making sense of the world and finding our place and way in it is a growing challenge. Language is one of the principal tools which helps us do this. The panel will explore the role of language in our perception, interpretation, and appropriation of the newly emerging environments as well as its role in the salvation of familiar spaces in view of the dramatic changes affecting all areas of life. Both the generic dimension of language (landscape categories, classes of objects, frames of reference etc.) as well as its proprial dimension (toponyms) will be explored. We particularly welcome contributions on the situation in Europe although papers on other areas of the world will also be given consideration.

Přemysl Mácha (1); Katalin Reszegi (2)
(1) Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, (2) Department of Hungarian Linguistics, Unviersity of Debrecen

 
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1146 | 99 | Landscape Perception across European Languages | Přemysl Mácha; Katalin Reszegi; et al.

The paper will present the results of an international comparative research on the role of language in explaining differences in landscape perception across Slavic, Baltic, Ugro-Finnish languages, Romanian, and Greek spoken in 14 countries in Central, Eastern, Northeastern and Southeastern Europe. It will explore differences in landscape perception between individual languages and language families and assess the potential influence of selected socio-demographic variables. This study is a follow-up on an earlier research (Van Putten et al. 2020) which focused on landscape perception differences between selected Romance and Germanic languages of Western Europe.

Přemysl Mácha; Katalin Reszegi; et al.
Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences; University of Debrecen; et al.

 
ID Abstract: 99

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1138 | 972 | Toponyms as an ‘interpretative tool’ for the spatial differentiation. The physical environment of La Terreta (North-western Catalan Pyrenees) as a case study | Joan Tort Donada, Xavier Planas Batlle

Starting from the premise of a consideration of onomastics as a transversal and interdisciplinary science, at the crossroads of linguistics, history and geography, we propose a reflection on the role of the toponym as an “interpretative tool” for the differentiation of space and, particularly, of landscape forms. In a more specific way, in the communication we approach the idea of the place name as a landscape indicator. This is to say: the consideration of the place name as a linguistic entity that provides us with some referential elements that, properly limited and contextualized, they allow us to make a “semantic reading” of the environment. In other words: they allow us a logical and concatenated interpretation of the similarities and differences that manifest themselves in the geographical space and that, through place names, end up implying the fixation of certain meanings, at different scales, of the physical environment.We complete the theoretical proposal with the consideration, from this point of view, of a region in the central sector of the Pyrenees, La Terreta, in the middle basin of the Noguera Ribagorçana river, in the border between Catalonia and Aragon, as a case study (case study which we materialize on the analysis of twenty particularly significant toponyms). This region is characterized, on the one hand, by a geological structure of great diversity – which gives rise to a physical environment with marked contrasts and differences; on the other hand, by a linguistic substrate (in the framework of North-western Catalan dialect, known as ribagorçà) of great lexical and onomastic richness. These qualities make the area of study a kind of “natural laboratory” especially suitable for our research purposes.

Joan Tort Donada, Xavier Planas Batlle
Universitat de Barcelona, Ministeri de Territori i Habitatge. Govern d’Andorra

 
ID Abstract: 972

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