Antisubjectivism and the (spectral) return of consciousness in landscape research

This paper analyses the changing conceptions of consciousness within landscape research over a critical period from the late 20th century to the present. The 1980s and 1990s mark a radical shift in the framing of consciousness away from psychological, perceptual, or experiential perspectives towards an ontology of consciousness as signifier, cultural artifact, and ideology. In cultural geography and the visual arts, these reframings can be characterised as anti subjectivist in that they do not attempt to problematize human consciousness so much as deactivate it and disqualify it from discussion. I draw out the theoretical and critical foundations of these antisubjectivist approaches as well as the subsequent opening out of the notion of landscape in more recent discussion. This ‘opening out’ implicates a more complex reengagement with minds, bodies, and landscapes and with the contested distinctions between subject and object. At the same time however, consciousness is seldom formulated explicitly within the literature and hence consciousness often occupies a spectral presence in the landscape of landscape research. I use one of my own paintings, Dalek in Landscape, to presage the discussion and attempt to highlight the tensions between these ideological, cultural and biological dimensions of consciousness at play within the landscape idea. Given the broader adoption of these anti-subjectivist developments within the academy, the example of landscape serves as a potentially useful case study for thinking upon the changing conceptions of consciousness in cognate creative and academic disciplines.

Living Landscape: The European Landscape Convention in Research Perspective

This special issue reports some of the highlights of the conference Living Landscape – The European Landscape Convention in Research Perspective, organised jointly by UNISCAPE and Landscape Europe (UNISCAPE, 2010). Starting questions for this conference were: what has science contributed to the implementation of the European Landscape Convention (CoE, 2000) and what are the topics for the future of European landscape? The 10th anniversary of the Florence Convention in October 2010 was an opportunity to discuss the merits of landscape science in integrated research of a rapidly changing environment. Many interdisciplinary contributions presented referred to the Landscape Convention. The conference focused on cutting-edge research results at the crossroads of sciences and humanities, design and empiricism. Not by chance, the conference was also the occasion to launch a new ESF-COST Science-Policy Briefing on Landscape Research (Bloemers, Daniels, Fairclough, Pedroli, & Stiles, 2010 Bloemers, T., Daniels, S., Fairclough, G., Pedroli, B., & Stiles, R. (Eds.) (2010) Landscape in a changing world. Bridging Divides, integrating disciplines, serving society. Science Policy Briefing nr 41. Strasbourg and Brussels: ESF-COST. ): ‘Landscape in a Changing World – Bridging Divides, Integrating Disciplines, Serving Society’. It emphasises the importance of four interdisciplinary themes: Universal commons: securing landscape as a common good. Roots and routes: coming to terms with mobility and evolving lifestyles. Reactions and resilience: long-term landscape transformations. Road maps: landscape as baseline and context for future change. The papers in this special issue largely reflect these themes.

Developing the untapped wealth of Britain's ?Celtic Fringe? : Water engineering and the Welsh landscape, 1870 ? 1960

Roberts, O. (2006). Developing the untapped wealth of Britain's ?Celtic fringe?: water engineering and the Welsh landscape, 1870-1960. Landscape Research. 31(2), pp.121-133. RAE2008

Shifting Shores: managing landscape challenge and change on the Lizard Peninsula, Cornwall

In this paper, we look at how landscape and climate change are simultaneously apprehended through institutional strategies and then negotiated through local knowledge and social relations on the ground. We argue that by examining landscapes that are practised, embodied and lived, it is possible to gain an understanding of people's actions, beliefs and values in relation to climate and climate change. This attention to cultural landscapes also enables us to ask how a variety of publics make sense of climate change, and how they are invited to do so by organisations that take responsibility for the management and preservation of landscape, such as the National Trust, Europe's biggest conservation organisation. This paper considers how the Trust makes sense of climate change via the document Shifting Shores and how its strategies are operationalised on the Lizard Peninsula, Cornwall, UK.

"Framing Counterspaces: Forms and Meanings of Graffiti in Berlin's Linguistic Landscape"

Street art and graffiti are integral parts of Berlin’s urban space, which has undergone dramatic transformations in the past two decades. Graffiti texts constitute a critical comment on these urban transformations. This talk analyzes the connection between the phenomenon of street art and trajectories in urban planning in post-wall Berlin. My current research explores the meaning of various forms of street art (such as graffiti, posters, sticker art, stencils) as texts in Berlin’s linguistic landscape. Linguistic Landscape research pays critical attention to language, words, and images displayed and exposed in public spaces. The field of Linguistic Landscapes has only recently begun to include graffiti texts in analyses of text and space to fully comprehend the semiotics of the street. In the case of Germany’s capital, graffiti writing enters into a critical dialogue with the environment and provides a readable text to understand the city.

Assessing the landscape value of public works: validation of the method in the lowlands of the middle section of the Tajo river (Spain)

This paper proposes a method of landscape characterisation and assessment of public works associated with fluvial landscapes, which is validated in the middle section of the Tajo River. In this method, a set of criteria is identified that unifies various characteristics of the landscape associated to the infrastructures. A specific weight is then assigned to each criterion in such a way as to produce a semi-quantitative value ranging from a minimum value of 0 to a maximum value of 10. Taken together, these criteria enable us to describe and assess the value of the public works selected for study, in this case helping us to evaluate the sections of the River Tajo analysed in our study area. Accordingly, the value of all the infrastructures associated to a stretch of the river covering several hundred kilometres was determined and after dividing this stretch into sections, they were compared under equivalent conditions to provide a hierarchal ranking.

The Power of the Palestinian Landscape : An exploratory study of the functions of power using aerial image interpretation

The Palestinian region is changing rapidly, with both economic and cultural consequences. One way of approaching this very political process is thru the concept of landscape. By viewing the region as a multiprocessual, dynamic landscape the analysis allows for a holistic read where historical and contemporary projections, interpretations and notions of power are fused. This thesis draws on the scholarly fields of humanistic landscape research and aerial image interpretation as well as theories of orientalism and power. A case study of two regions of the West Bank is performed; interviews and observations provide localized knowledge that is then used in open-access image interpretation. By performing image interpretations this thesis explores the power embedded in mapping and the possible inclinations the development towards open-access geospatial analytic tools could have on the functions of power in the Palestinian landscape. By investigating the spatial configuration of the Palestinian landscape and tracing its roots this thesis finds four major themes that are particularly pivotal in the processual change of the Palestinian landscape: the Israeli/Palestinian time-space, the blurring of the conflict, the dynamics of the frontier region and the orientalist gaze. 

Challenges for a shared European countryside of uncertain future. Towards a modern community based landscape perspective

This paper addresses current changes in the highly diverse European landscape, and the way these transitions are being treated in policy and landscape management in the fragmented, heterogeneous and dynamic context of today’s Europe. It appears that intersecting driving forces are increasing the complexity of European landscapes and causing polarising developments in agricultural land use, biodiversity conservation and cultural landscape management. On the one hand, multifunctional rural landscapes, especially in peri-urban regions, provide services and functions that serve the citizens in their demand for identity, support their sense of belonging and offer opportunities for recreation and involvement in practical landscape management. On the other hand, industrial agricultural production on increasingly large farms produces food, feed, fibre and energy to serve expanding international markets with rural live ability and accessibility as a minor issue. The intermediate areas of traditionally dominant small and family farms in Europe seem to be gradually declining in profitability. The paper discusses the potential of a governance approach that can cope with the requirement of optimising land-sharing conditions and community-based landscape development, while adapting to global market conditions.

The impact of abandoned/disused marble quarries on avifauna in the anticline of Estremoz, Portugal: does quarrying add to landscape biodiversity?

Although the extractive operations of quarrying are often considered environmental threats, there is some evidence that abandoned quarries may have a significant positive impact on biodiversity by enhancing habitat quality for several species. In Estremoz Anticlinal, SE Portugal, many of the existing marble quarries have been inactive for decades and were abandoned without any restoration project in progress. The impact of quarry abandonment on avifauna diversity was assessed relative to reference conditions using adjacent rural fields as control areas. No significant differences were found in within-community diversity (alpha diversity) between abandoned quarries and reference sites. However, several dissimilarity indices showed a clear divergence in species composition between abandoned quarries and reference sites. Furthermore, statistically significant differences in species compositions were found between quarries abandoned for different periods. Over time, species composition becomes more similar to that observed in reference sites, reflecting ecological succession and landscape resilience to quarrying. Nevertheless, the studied quarrying landscape exhibited higher gamma and beta diversity than the former traditional landscape; thus, our results suggest that abandoned quarries, rather than damaging and destroying niches, can promote new ecological niches and significantly diversify rural landscapes.

The impact of abandoned/disused marble quarries on avifauna in the anticline of Estremoz, Portugal: does quarrying add to landscape biodiversity?

Although the extractive operations of quarrying are often considered environmental threats, there is some evidence that abandoned quarries may have a significant positive impact on biodiversity by enhancing habitat quality for several species. In Estremoz Anticlinal, SE Portugal, many of the existing marble quarries have been inactive for decades and were abandoned without any restoration project in progress. The impact of quarry abandonment on avifauna diversity was assessed relative to reference conditions using adjacent rural fields as control areas. No significant differences were found in within-community diversity (alpha diversity) between abandoned quarries and reference sites. However, several dissimilarity indices showed a clear divergence in species composition between abandoned quarries and reference sites. Furthermore, statistically significant differences in species compositions were found between quarries abandoned for different periods. Over time, species composition becomes more similar to that observed in reference sites, reflecting ecological succession and landscape resilience to quarrying. Nevertheless, the studied quarrying landscape exhibited higher gamma and beta diversity than the former traditional landscape; thus, our results suggest that abandoned quarries, rather than damaging and destroying niches, can promote new ecological niches and significantly diversify rural landscapes.

Waterfalls, science and aesthetics

Waterfalls and rapids are a subject of study by scientists and scholars from a variety of academic and professional backgrounds. Unlike cave research, known as speleology, which also involves many different disciplines, the study of waterfalls is not generally regarded as a distinct branch of knowledge. Long neglected as subjects of research, waterfalls have received considerable attention since the 1980s. This paper traces the study of waterfalls from the late eighteenth century, a period when both a scientific and an aesthetic interest in landscape developed in Europe, to the present. The work of geographers, geologists and others who studied landforms and landscapes is examined, with particular attention to those who expressed a special interest in waterfalls, notably Alexander von Humboldt. The study argues that the scientific and aesthetic approaches to landscape research are not incompatible and supports the view that both are necessary for a full understanding and appreciation of the environment in which we live.

Deciphering historic landscapes: A case study of slender West Lake in Yangzhou, China

Historic landscapes today are changing gradually or abruptly, and the abrupt changes have caused the loss of much historic information. How to identify and protect the significant evidence of dynamic landscapes is a question that must be answered by each cultural community. This paper establishes a decipherment process – an operational guide for landscape assessment in China. This is a methodology using European methods integrated with traditional Chinese ways of landscape appreciation, providing an effective approach to translate the cultural landscape framework into the conservation inventory. Using Slender West Lake as a case study, the decipherment process has expanded the existing landscape investigation theory using the factor of artistic conception to integrate intangible values into the assessment process. It has also established a unit-based method to classify and represent historic landscapes.

Towards the sustainable use of Europe’s forests: a centre for European forest science! – Some missing catalytic elements?

The Symposium, “Towards the sustainable use of Europe’s forests”, with sub-title “Forest ecosystem and landscape research: scientific challenges and opportunities” lists three fundamental substantive areas of research that are involved: Forest management and practices, Ecosystem processes and functional ecology, and Environmental economics and sociology. This paper argues that there are essential catalytic elements missing! Without these elements there is great danger that the aimed-for world leadership in the forest sciences will not materialize. What are the missing elements? All the sciences, and in particular biology, environmental sciences, sociology, economics, and forestry have evolved so that they include good scientific methodology. Good methodology is imperative in both the design and analysis of research studies, the management of research data, and in the interpretation of research finding. The methodological disciplines of Statistics, Modelling and Informatics (“SMI”) are crucial elements in a proposed Centre of European Forest Science, and the full involvement of professionals in these methodological disciplines is needed if the research of the Centre is to be world-class. Distributed Virtual Institute (DVI) for Statistics, Modelling and Informatics in Forestry and the Environment (SMIFE) is a consortium with the aim of providing world-class methodological support and collaboration to European research in the areas of Forestry and the Environment. It is suggested that DVI: SMIFE should be a formal partner in the proposed Centre for European Forest Science.

Identidad territorial y paisaje. Evolución morfológica de los núcleos en Castilla y León.

Este estudio intenta esclarecer las transformaciones físicas y socioeconómicas de los asentamientos rurales de la región española de Castilla y León, durante la segunda mitad del siglo XX. Se analiza la evolución temporal de la forma urbana a través de un Sistema de Información Geográfico (SIG), calculando unos índices métricos y comparándolos con la información demográfica histórica. Los resultados pretenden mostrar los efectos de la especialización funcional económica, causada por la integración en las jerarquías productivas globales, sobre la estructura urbana. La pérdida gradual de las características tradicionales de los pueblos castellanos, como la compacidad y la integración en el entorno, debido a la pérdida o degradación de la arquitectura popular y la construcción de nuevas edificaciones industriales, supone un riesgo para las futuras políticas de desarrollo local. Se considera necesario preservar la identidad paisajística y evitar la destrucción del patrimonio cultural para poder revitalizar estos territorios.