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CFP RGS-IBG 2010: Landscape and Living with Environmental Challenge and Change
Sessions sponsored by Landscape Research Group (LRG)
Landscape grounds change in a fundamental way. As Henderson (2003: 196)
argues, “the study of landscape, that thing which so often evokes the plane
on which normal, everyday life is lived – precisely because of the premium
it places on the everyday – must stand up to the facts of a world in
crisis…” It is precisely the qualities of a newly theorized landscape
outlined by Rose and Wylie (2006) that enable the concept of landscape to be
used to explore the lived experience of environmental challenge and change.
For them, landscape can “insinuate itself into vitalist, relational, and
topological geographies: landscape reintroduces perspective and contour;
texture and feeling; perception and imagination. It is the synthesis of
elements, so elegantly traced by topologies, with something added: lightless
chasms, passing clouds, airless summits, sweeping sands” (Rose and Wylie,
2006: 477).
In our geographical imaginations, the concept of ‘landscape’ is constantly
being challenged. At the same time, the landscape itself is changing. This
session invites papers on both theoretical and empirical treatments of
landscape in light of past/present/future environmental challenges and
changes. We argue that a concern with landscape helps us to “re-balance
spatial insensitivities in current academic debates” (Bailey, 2008: 420),
not only on climate policy as Bailey argues, but on environmental changes
more generally. As Mitchell argues: “landscape research must be about all
manner of other things than just the landscape itself” (2003:790).
We welcome contributions on (and beyond) the following themes:
• Landscape and weather, climate and/or climate change
• Landscape and environmental change
• New theorisations of landscape in light of global changes
• Threatened landscapes
• Landscape in cultures of preservation and conservation
• Collaborative/interdisciplinary work on landscapes of change
Session organisers: Hilary Geoghegan and Catherine Brace (University of
Exeter). Please direct any questions or abstracts (max. 250 words) to Hilary
Geoghegan
([log in to unmask]) by 12th February 2010.
Session Sponsorship
The LRG is concerned with all types and aspects of landscape, from
wilderness to cities. It is a voluntary, charitable association, based in
Britain but with a world-wide membership. Its purpose is to encourage the
exchange of ideas and to promote research and practices that engage
landscape and environment. It does this by sponsoring public programmes and
conferences. As well as through the publication of Landscape Research
(Taylor and Francis) and the newsletter Landscape Research Extra.
Landscape Research Group: http://www.landscaperesearch.org/index.htm
Membership of Landscape Research Group is open to all:
http://www.landscaperesearch.org/membership.htm
Landscape Research: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/carfax/01426397.html
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