(Norway) Landscape as Common Good

ozge

3 days meeting arranged by the Nordic Landscape Research Network

Oscarsborg Fortress, Drøbak , Norway

29-31 August 2007

Conference webpage: http://www.umb.no/sevu/landscape/index.html


The preamble to the European Landscape convention "recognizes that the quality and diversity of European landscapes constitute a common resource, and that it is important to co-operate towards its protection, management and planning. In addition to their local significance, Europe 's landscapes are of value in various ways to all Europeans. They are cherished outside the locality and beyond national borders" (Council of Europe).

The Convention defines landscape as "... an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors. . . . This definition reflects the idea that landscapes evolve through time, as a result of being acted upon by natural forces and human beings. It also underlines that a landscape forms a whole, whose natural and cultural components are taken together, not separately".

As defined in the Convention, landscape is a dynamic concept and implicates a diversity of possible applications and understandings. The Convention is, however, clear in its advocating of an understanding of landscape as 'common good', i.e. it belongs to everyone. This idealistic concept of landscape therefore raises questions in a number of theoretical and practical arenas. We propose to address 'landscape as common good' within three different, yet closely linked contexts:


Landscape as Policy / Landscape as Practice / Landscape as History



Convenors: Anne Katrine Geelmuyden, Ingegerd Holand, Gunhild Setten