KULAKon – The constitution of cultural landscape
Cultural landscapes have been shaped by man throughout centuries. Therefore they are often associated with distinct perceptions and meanings. The question arises, however, how and why people characterise some areas as “cultural landscapes”, but not others.
Four research projects are being funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) to address this question, under the umbrella of the joint network “KULAKon – Constitution of Cultural Landscapes”.
The term constitution emphasises that cultural landscapes should not only be looked at as physical areas, as natural sciences do. In social sciences they are moreover understood as a social construction resulting from individual, institutional and societal processes.
Following this perspective the four projects
- analyse how landscape planners, regional stakeholders and the population in general construct cultural landscapes
- which social processes lead to the characterisation of certain areas as cultural landscapes
- how and why different actors give different, even unequal attributes and values to the same area, e.g. “beautiful”, “worthy of protection” or “disrupted”
- how cultural landscapes can be starting points for regional cooperation.
The KULAKon projects emerged from a joint initiative of the 4R Competence Network and the Chair of Landscape Planning and Development at the Berlin Institute of Technology. Geographers, planners and political scientists cover different aspects of the constitution of cultural landscapes:
- Dr. Sabine Tzschaschel and Dr. Monika Micheel, Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography, Leipzig: The subjective construction of cultural landscape in everyday practice.
- Dr. Markus Leibenath and Antje Otto, Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development, Dresden: Construction of cultural landscapes through discourses and discourse coalitions.
- Prof. Dr. Heiderose Kilper and Ludger Gailing, Leibniz Institute for Regional Development and Structural Planning, Erkner: The contribution of institutional systems in different sectors to the constitution of cultural landscapes and the coordination of interaction.
- Prof. Dr. Stefan Heiland and Wera Wojtkiewicz, Department of Landscape Planning, Technical University of Berlin: Cultural landscape imagery in landscape planning.
Regular meetings and workshops provide for intensive exchange between the projects.
Duration of project:
2008 to 2011
Contact:
Dr. Sabine Tzschaschel
Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography
Phone: +49 (0)341 255-6545
E-Mail: S_Tzschaschel@ifl-leipzig.de
© 2006-2009 4R-Netzwerk
Last updated on:
02.08.2011