European Rural Landscapes: Persistence and Change in a Globalising Environment

Frontmatter

Chapter 1. The Permanence of Persistence and Change

Introduction

Abstract

The only thing that is permanent is change. the hidden paradox in the relationship between permanence and change is that “all change implies that something is preserved”, and that “in all permanence there is some degree of change” (Jones 1991: 235). Within landscape research, this paradox has in multiple ways been structuring how we have come to understand and interpret both the material and symbolic aspects of landscapes.

Hannes Palang, Helen Sooväli, Marc Antrop, Gunhild Setten

Chapter 2. The Languages of Rural Landscapes

Abstract

Linguistics, in the forms it took during the 20th century, is a fascinating science. It deals with languages seized as wholes and their components, sounds, words and sentences. It delves on the way the components are conditioned by the wholes. It explores the significance of the signs it is made up of. It insists on the two faces of signs, which appear at the same time as signifiers and signified. the explanations linguistics provides are not based entirely on external forms of causation, but also on the inner logic of the relations between the whole and the parts, and between signifiers and signified.

Paul Claval

Chapter 3. “This is not a Landscape”: Circulating Reference and Land Shaping

Abstract

A look at a definition of landscape in an ordinary dictionary reveals that landscape can mean both a representation of a scene (pictorial scenery) and that which might be thus represented, as when “a portion of territory that can be viewed at one time from one place” is represented in a painting of, for example, “natural inland scenery” or as “a particular area of activity: SCENE”:

Landscape is thus both a form of representation and something that is represented. This raises issues, I will argue, concerning the historical and present day character of the interrelationship between the representation and that represented.

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Kenneth R. Olwig

Chapter 4. Naming and Claiming Discourse

The “Practice” of Landscape and Place in Human Geography

Abstract

This is a paper about concepts, classification and the ordering of knowledge. Conceptualising the world consists of labelling knowledge by another name — we employ suitable concepts using our worldly experiences and knowledges. Withers (1996: 275) claims that “classification is intrinsic to knowledge”, hence, “we label knowledge as an inevitable consequence of ordering the world”. the relationship between concepts and categories and the world is thus dialectical — concepts and categories “are contexts and subjects of geographical experiences” (Relph 1985: 21). Therefore, there is a need to always “be sensitive to the reciprocal relationships between geographical ‘texts’ and the epistemological contexts of their production and use” (Withers 1996: 275). Consequently, the dialectics of language (i.e. its concepts and classifications) and their relationship to the world provide meaning and direction to the world. Even more importantly, dialectics of language annex the world.

Gunhild Setten

Chapter 5. Between Insideness and Outsideness — Studying Locals’ Perceptions of Landscape

Abstract

In European countries, the environmental and landscape management of rural areas has faced several new challenges along with the changing role of agriculture. the quality of food, landscape values, and the vitality of rural areas have increasingly been emphasised in the latest agricultural and rural policies. At the same time, the consumers are increasingly taking part in food production and in rural — especially landscape — development; for example, demanding the preservation of landscapes and maintenance of biodiversity (Marsden 1995; Pierce 1996; Macnaghten & Urry 1998). Society is thus reasserting its hold on rural nature, land and culture.

Katriina Soini

Chapter 6. Landscape Consumption in Otepää, Estonia

Zusammenfassung

Estonia’s rural development has been much affected by the economic decline during the recent transition period, which has involved land reform and a process of privatisation in almost all of Estonia. However, the Otepää region forms a specific case that is largely different from other rural areas in Estonia — while most rural areas suffer from a severe shortage of financial opportunities, Otepää belongs to the few remarkably able to attract investments, and as a result it is experiencing fast development and elevated construction activity (for example, the number of residential houses in the region has increased by 9.6 percent within the last five years. See Remm & Oja 2003). the reason for this is based on the region’s image of being “a nice place”, based on landscape as a natural value. Exploring the region’s fascinating end-moraine landscape in the interest of nature conservation resulted in a nature park, and the hilly relief makes Otepää the main winter sports center in Estonia — the landscapes have given the area a well-known recreational image. To some extent, different uses of landscape compete with each other for the same spatial resources. To some extent they are complimentary, and certain developments in infrastructure support all activities that are at the same time supported by the imagery of the region.

Tõnu Oja, Monika Prede

Chapter 7. Countryside Imagery in Finnish National Discourse

Abstract

This article is based on a notion of national landscape imagery understood as a visual signifying system, representing national space and linking physical sites with national ideology. According to Stuart Hall, national identity is produced by a cultural system of representation essentially based on stereotypes. These are conventional by nature, yet have the power of directing individual thought and action (Hall 1992; Moscovici 1984).

Maunu Häyrynen

Chapter 8. Religious Places — Changing Meanings. The Case of Saaremaa Island, Estonia

Abstract

The reverence for places (e.g., religious sites) cherished by native people is increasingly being disturbed and replaced by more pragmatic notions and purposes, mostly connected to tourism. How does this change influence the identity of a place? In order to demonstrate the possible effect of such a turn, we looked at the example of churches on Saaremaa Island — the biggest island of Estonia, situated on the west coast (see Figure 1). We studied the ransformation of religious sites, from their symbolic roles in the past to their contemporary roles.

Taavi Pae, Egle Kaur

Chapter 9. Of Oaks, Erratic Boulders, and Milkmaids

The Poet Imants Ziedonis and Art as Mediator Between Discourses About Rural Landscapes

Abstract

In the study and care for rural landscapes and their inhabitants a perpetual dilemma is knowing the different discourses those landscapes embody for a culture group, or “discourse community,” as Siri Aasbo (1999: 148) calls it (after Eco 1977). It is a well-known truism that a gap exists in the understanding and evaluation of landscapes between insiders and outsiders, natives and visitors, actors and observers, inhabitants and experts. Since this is known territory, I shall not revisit it, except to restate the obvious — expert opinion, even when well-intended, rarely agrees with the local inhabitants in what is good for them. As Sverker Sörlin expresses it, landscape is a “contested terrain” (1999: 103). the expert will tell the native that his sacred cow is useless, but the native will keep it anyhow. It is a question of what is good for the flesh (i.e. the economy) and what for the soul. This is a very real situation in Europe today, especially in countries such as England, France, Estonia, and Latvia, where the so-called agricultural sector represents economic and political problems, with fundamentally complex issues of the flesh and the soul for farmers. .

Edmunds V. Bunkše

Chapter 10. The Border and the Bordered

An Interdisciplinary Comparison of the Origin and Function of the Border of the Parish Gryt in Södermanland, Sweden, and the Border of the Corresponding Hundred

Abstract

The parish of Gryt in central Södermanland, Sweden, constitutes the area of investigation in an ongoing research project The Parish Gryt — Landscape and Community in an Ecosystem Perspective (Figure 1). An ecosystem approach is being employed in this study, in order to analyse the parish community’s ecological relation with its territory over time. the intention is to study the human community as a part of the ecosystem, and thus to reveal aspects of its sustainability and adaptation in regards to carrying capacity in the parish. As a first step in this project, the border of the conceived system — i.e. the border of the parish — was examined.

Maria Bergström, Margareta Ihse

Chapter 11. A Hidden World? A Gendered Perspective on Swedish Historical Maps

Abstract

In learning about historical landscapes and the historical dimensions of today’s landscapes, historical maps are a rich source of information. In academic research maps have for long been used by geographers, but they are also becoming more commonly used within non-geographical disciplines such as archaeology, ecology etc. In different types of conservation work, concerning both cultural heritage and nature conservation, their use is today seen as almost compulsory. Historical maps are also often used by nonacademics who take an interest in for instance local history and genealogical studies. the attention paid to the information derived from historical maps is often complementing other sources, particularly regarding landscape issues.

Elisabeth Gräslund Berg

Chapter 12. When Sweden was Put on the Map

Abstract

The Swedish large-scale surveying of farms, hamlets and villages during the 1630s and 1640s was at that time unique in the world, due to the large scale of its undertaking and homogeneous appearance. Approximately 15,000 maps were created, with most of them put together in so-called Geometric Land-Atlas Maps (geometriska jordeböcker), consisting of maps from one or more hundreds (härader). These maps provide an outstanding source of information in regards to studies on the historical, economical, and spatial details of the old agrarian landscape in Sweden. the material was last addressed in a detailed and complete manner some ten years ago by Elizabeth Baigent and Robert Kain (Kain & Baigent 1992). Recently, a research project was commenced with the aim of making these maps available in a national edition. This project is situated at the National Archives of Sweden, and financed by the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation and the Royal Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities. the following article provides a brief introduction to this fascinating material.

Clas Tollin

Chapter 13. Tycho Brahe, Cartography and Landscape in 16th Century Scandinavia

Abstract

A little more than 400 years ago, on 24 October, 1601, the great Danish astronomer, Tycho Brahe (Tyge Ottesen Brahe) died in Prague, where he is buried in the Teyn church. Tycho’s last assistant, and his successor as Imperial Mathematician to Emperor Rudolph II, was the German astronomer Johannes Kepler, who wrote at the end of Tycho Brahe’s log of astronomical observations (Dreyer 1926: 283, translated by Rosen 1986: 313, cited in Thoren 1990: 469):

At this time ... his series of celestial observations was interrupted, and the observations of 38 years came to an end.

Michael Jones

Chapter 14. New Money and the Land Market

Landownership in 19th-Century Twente, the Netherlands

Abstract

During the nineteenth century the Netherlands witnessed the rise of a newly wealthy class; an urban nouveaux riches born of banking, trade and industry. Despite the origins of their prosperity, many of these individuals chose to invest part of their wealth in landownership. This was a phenomenon that was clearly evident in the Twente region of the eastern Netherlands (Figure 1). Here, the chief source of new money lay in the growing textile trade. But it was the coincidence of this industrial development with important changes in the institutional structures of landownership — specifically the radical transformation of long-established systems of communal ownership —, which allowed the newly wealthy the opportunity to establish themselves as an important presence in the land market. Together, the privatisation of communal land and the entry of a new class of investors into the market point to changes with a potentially important effect on the society and landscape of Twente. This paper attempts to increase our knowledge of this development through a brief exploration of the scale and location of land purchases, the use made of newly-acquired land and the motives that prompted entry into the land market.

Elyze Smeets

Chapter 15. The Landscape of Vittskövle Estate — At the Crossroads of Feudalism and Modernity

Abstract

An essential question regarding the understanding of landscape concerns the role of history. While every landscape is considered contemporary, they also possess historical dimensions. Sometimes the historical traits in a landscape are very palpable; but as long as no time machine exists, even the most ancient landscapes must still be regarded as present-day landscapes. “The past is [thus] a foreign country,” as David Lowenthal (1985) has so famously argued. Concerning linear time, there therefore exists a duality in every landscape, simply expressed as a “now” and a “then”. As the line between now and then is constantly moving, it means that the historical dimension of a landscape is continually reshaped. Furthermore, as time moves on, the past takes on different meanings depending on the position of the observer in the present. This is of course valid for history at large — all history bears the mark of the time in which it is written, but landscape history is special in that it is materialised history forming the totality of the present world.

Tomas Germundsson

Chapter 16. Greens, Commons and Shifting Power Relations in Flanders

The Common Meadows in Semmerzake from the 13th Century to the 19th Century

Abstract

More than 25 years ago, at the 1975 meeting of PECSRL in Warsaw, the Belgian scholars Claude and Dussart presented the results of their research on the dries, villages in Inner Flanders (Dussart et al. 1975). At the PECSRL session in 2000, the late R. Knaepen presented the results of his studies done concerning the commons of the Campine area, in the eastern part of Belgium (Knaepen 1994; Knaepen et al. 2002). This topic has remained in focus at several departments of Ghent University (Belgium), and various inventories have been drawn up over time (e.g., Thoen 1987; Vinck 1997; Van Der Haegen 1999). In 2002, an article published by Martina De Moor concentrated attention on the commons in the Campine area and in West Flanders (De Moor 2002).

Pieter-Jan Lachaert

Chapter 17. Enclosure Landscapes in the Uplands of England and Wales

Abstract

The upland landscapes of England and Wales are a highly distinctive part of the British scene, and are greatly prized today by the general public for their aesthetic qualities, for their wildlife significance, and as areas for informal recreation. the landscapes of areas such as the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales, and Snowdonia are a major magnet for both British and foreign tourists, giving them considerable economic, as well as emotional, significance. Such landscapes are not, of course, natural. Following the pioneering work of G.W. Dimbleby (1952), and later Ian Simmons (1969), it is recognized that they are a function of past human activities. However, the part played in their evolution by the enclosure movements of the 18^th and 19^th centuries has been widely ignored. These movements are generally recognized as one of the major formative influences on the English rural landscape, but the academic literature focuses almost entirely on the impact of the Parliamentary part of the movement on the former open-field landscapes of the English Midlands, apart from a few highly localized studies (for example Eyre 1957).

John Chapman

Chapter 18. Land Purchase and the Survival of Swedish Ethnicity in Estonia

Estonian Swedes in Nuckö 1816–1924

Abstract

There is a growing interest in issues of ethnicity. For example, many people wishing to learn more about their background do so by studying the history of the ethnic group they belong to. For this reason, research focusing on ethnic groups over longer periods of time is of particular interest at present. Despite the importance of the relationship between the opportunity to own land and the survival of an ethnic group, relatively few studies have systematically focused on this question within the field of historical geography. It is the contention of this paper that such a link needs to be established, and that evidence relating to the Swedish minority settled in Estonia points to the value of such an approach.

Ann Grubbström

Chapter 19. The Dynamics of Property Rights in Post-Communist East Germany

Abstract

In many respects the transformation process in East Germany proved to be less independent from foreign influences than in other so-called transformation states such as Poland or the Czech Republic. the reunification with West Germany and the adoption of the West German social, economic and legal systems predetermined the process and set the pace for a restructuring process which was interestingly partly orientated towards the future and partly towards the past (Wollmann & Eisen 1995; Reißig 1996; Wiesenthal 1996).

Karl Martin Born

Chapter 20. Different Methods for the Protection of Cultural Landscapes

The Example of an Early Industrial Landscape in the Veluwe Region, the Netherlands

Abstract

In most countries in Europe and Northern America, since the end of the 19^th century a growing number of buildings and archaeological objects have been designated as cultural heritage and they are protected as such. Protection of larger areas started also during the end of the 19^th century. In this case, the initiative usually came from nature protection quarters. Many of the oldest National Parks are designated mainly for their ecological values. In the course of the 20^th century, the interest in cultural landscapes grew. on the one hand, protection of buildings and archaeological sites often proved unsatisfactory when these objects became disparate from their fast changing surrounding landscapes. on the other hand, ecologists realised that most of the landscapes they wanted to protect, were in fact the result of centuries-long human influence. During the second half of the 20^th century, protection of cultural landscapes became part of the political agenda in a number of countries. In some countries — most prominently in the United Kingdom — cultural landscapes, including living agrarian landscapes, were designated as national parks. Most of these protected landscapes are situated in regions which are marginal for agriculture, and national park status is often seen as a means to attract tourists and subsidies.

Johannes Renes

Chapter 21. The Significance of the Dutch Historical Gis Histland

The Example of the Mediaeval Peat Landscapes of Staphorst-Rouveen and Vriezenveen

Abstract

In the Netherlands, there is quite a long tradition of applied historical geography (Vervloet 1994), in which attempts are always made to find a balance between what is at times quick and dirty contract research on the one hand, and a more scientific approach on the other. the outcomes of investigations are reported in rather substantial quantities of text, which are always accompanied by detailed maps. Text and maps together give an idea of the reclamation and habitation history of the Netherlands, which, in the case of applied historical geography, is linked to relics found in the presentday landscape. Until recently, it was not always easy to transform 2000 years of Dutch occupation and habitation history into old-fashioned, hand-drawn maps. With the introduction of a multi-layered GIS system, this problem seems to be solved. the main question is to what extent GIS — and the Dutch historical GIS Histland in particular — is able to do justice to the complex and highly dynamic habitation history of many Dutch regions.

Chris de Bont

Chapter 22. The Future Role of Agriculture in Rural Communities

Case Studies in Estonia and Lithuania

Abstract

The political and economic transformation that started in the early 1990s has had an important impact on the rural landscapes of Central and Eastern Europe. As a consequence of the radical changes that occurred in the agricultural sector — with the introduction of a market economy, a new ownership structure, and a reorientation of agricultural policy — much land has been taken out of production. Estonian studies (Peterson & Aunap 1998; Mander et al. 2000; Reiljan & Kulu 2002) reveal significant increases in the amount of abandoned land, and decreases of approximately 25 percent in the quantity of arable land. In Lithuania, it is estimated that 10 percent of the agricultural land has been abandoned (MoA 2000). the large-scale collective and state farm structure collapsed and privately-owned entities emerged in the beginning of the 1990s (MoA 2002a). the immediate results were a significant decline in gross agricultural output, and trade deficits in agricultural products. In the Baltic countries, possibilities for employment in rural areas have decreased (Bezemer et al. 2003a) — for example, the number of jobs offered in the rural areas of Estonia has fallen by about 25 percent (Reiljan & Kulu 2002). the collapse of large-scale agricultural production and food processing has not only decreased employment, it has also left the rural areas with inadequate infrastructure — and not very well-adjusted to the emergence of a small-scale farming structure.

Mette Bech Sørensen

Chapter 23. Danish Farmers and the Cultural Environment

Landscape Management with a Cultural Dimension

Abstract

Landscape management is a well-known and much-debated issue in socalled “modern welfare” societies. the management of landscapes within these societies is usually in the hands of state or council employees, but is almost always put into practice by local farmers, who have used the landscape for agricultural purposes for thousands of years. For a number of years, state bureaucracies in most of Western Europe have focused on the limited term nature conservation in regards to landscape management, and the role of farmers in this respect. So when the term conservation has been used, its meaning has usually referred only to the preservation of flora and fauna, or their habitats (Green 1996; Beedell & Rehman 2000; Wilson & Hart 2001). Legislation, registration and strategic research in Denmark concerning landscape management have for decades been directed primarily towards nature conservation; although nobody involved in the process will claim that particular situation to be an ideal one (Agger et al. 1986; Brandt 1994).

Per Grau Møller

Chapter 24. The Human Factor in Biodiversity

Swedish Farmers’ Perspectives on Seminatural Grasslands

Abstract

Landscape management and planning have become significant factors in post-productive rural areas. Through landscape policies, certain ideas about the fashion of the rural landscape are promoted. Policy-making, explicitly concerning the structures and qualities of the agricultural landscape in Sweden, was first initiated in the 1970s as a response to the ongoing abandonment of agricultural land and the degrading of biological values. Ecology and biodiversity developed as major concepts in the 1980s within rural landscape management, thus the planning of agricultural landscapes is very much the domain of the natural sciences (cf. Luz 2000). Agricultural landscapes, however, are not just a question of species, soils, water and climate, but also of culture, being inhabited by people and with a future dependent on human decisions and human activities. Moreover, landscapes vary as do the local and regional contexts, of which the physical features are integrated parts. With common agricultural and rural policies for a large part of Europe, there is an obvious risk that local and regional characteristics will be harmed by such general policies. Thus, landscape planning cannot only take physical facts as a point of departure, but must also deal with the human factor (Pretty 1998; cf. Van den Berg 2000; Bridgewater 2002). There is hence a need to find ways to integrate people and socio-economic aspects within landscape planning (cf. Fry 2001). That is the aim of this chapter.

Marie Stenseke

Chapter 25. Diversity of Estonian Coastal Landscapes: Past and Future

Abstract

Estonia is a small country, by the Baltic Sea, with a long shoreline (3,790 km), and thus coastal landscapes comprise a significant part of the country (Figure 1).

Elle Puurmann, Urve Ratas, Reimo Rivis

Chapter 26. Management Strategies in Forest Landscapes in Norway

Abstract

The main purpose of this work is to present some views on the management of landscape change in forest landscapes from the perspectives of ecological integrity and management regimes, using a transdisciplinary approach. This gives us an opportunity to describe the practice of various management regimes and discuss future management strategies. the presentation is based on the project The Battlefield of Regimes, financially supported by the Research Council of Norway (Skjeggedal 2001; Skjeggedal et al. 2001). This project is mainly concerned with the management of landscape change in forested areas in an ecological perspective.

Terje Skjeggedal, Tor Arnesen, Guri Markhus, Per Gustav Thingstad

Chapter 27. Past Landscape Use as an Ecological Influence on the Actual Environment

Abstract

In beginning a paper on outdoor ecology, normally the stand or study area is described, concerning where the research has been carried out. the stand is characterised by climatic, hydrological, lithological and pedological factors. They are regarded as natural in the sense of being non-anthropogenic. There is also the widespread — but not explicitly written — opinion that natural factors are or were stable up to the point of time when intensive land-use on the present-day scale began.

Hansjörg Küster

Chapter 28. Can Landscapes be Read?

Abstract

This paper takes as its starting point a question which can be formulated like this: Through reflection and deconstruction, is it at all possible at this time to maintain the idea that landscapes can be read and analysed in a scientific manner?1 It is appropriate to ask this question in the context of the Permanent European Conference for the Study of the Rural Landscape (PECSRL). Throughout the history of this conference, the idea that landscapes can be explained in a way that stands over and above local, national and ethnic understandings has formed an important line of thought. What was sometimes in the 1960s and 1970s referred to as the “modern” school of cultural landscape research was thus based on the idea of cultural landscape studies as an international, comparative science. Here, I deliberately use the word science, not simply the Swedish vetenskap or the German Wissenschaft — but science as in natural science (cf. Schaefer 1953: 236).

Mats Widgren

Chapter 29. The Permanent Conference and the Study of the Rural Landscape

A Retrospect

Abstract

It is the accomplishment of Xavier de Planhol, at the age of 30 years old, to have organised the first European multidisciplinary scholarly meeting in the field of géographie et histoire agraires. It happened in 1957, perhaps not incidentally the time of the formation of the European Communities (Treaty of Rome). He also later actively promoted the development towards a “Permanent Conference”. As an informal founding father — from 1971, he was elected secretary-general of the Conference — he participated in 10 consecutive meetings, at eight of them with papers.

Staffan Helmfrid