Session organisers: Veerle Van Eetvelde1, Isabel Loupa-Ramos2, Tiago Dionisia1, Seppe De Wit1, Fatima Bernardo3
(1) Department of Geography, Gent University, Belgium
(2) Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon University, Portugal
(3) Department of Psychology, University of Évora, Portugal
Session description
The interactions with our surroundings are essential in constructing people’s identities. We know the landscape we live in, we interact with it daily and in doing so, we make it our home. Feeling at home in our surroundings is important to our quality of life. The relationship between humans and their surroundings or landscape – landscape identity – is a vital component of the complex, continuous process of identity in different dimensions and at different scales. Research on landscape identity combines scientific disciplines from both natural sciences (geography and landscape ecology) and human sciences (environmental psychology). It gives input in creating new or adapted spaces, stimulating a shared identity.
However, landscapes and people are dynamic phenomena, and consequently, the changing world can influence the relationship and interaction between people and their surroundings as described in the transactional model of landscape identity (Loupa-Ramos et al. 2016). This is especially the case along and across borders. Borders can be physical as clear or crisp boundaries in a landscape at multiple scales (from the district to the regional level), they can be created by cultural, social, or economic variations among people, they can be the result of political decisions, or they can be a social construction and seen as an imaginary or mental border. Consequently, borders and landscape identity are intertwined. Especially in border landscapes, understanding and grasping intergroup relations can give insights into how people relate across and beyond borders. In some cases, different perceptions and identity processes within and between groups can either lead to contrasting and conflicting aspirations towards the landscape, other cases are examples of respecting and honouring the existing identities.
This session will discuss how people and landscapes across borders can be related and interact and will address the following questions:
– How can landscape identity be identified, both in terms of landscape character and the perception of people, across borders?
– How is the formation of landscape identity influenced by different types of borders, considering perspectives from natural and human sciences?
– How can borders be constructed, strengthened, and enforced by landscape identity? And can borders be considered as boundary objects that are dissolved, removed, and disappeared by landscape identity?
– How can political decisions and policies influence the perception and construction of landscape identity along borders, and how can this contribute to more harmonious cross-border interactions?
– How can common physical and mental spaces be developed, designed or created that dissolve borders and increase social cohesion across borders?
