Benedetta Castiglioni

Institutional vs "everyday" landscape as conflicting concepts in opinions and practices. Reflections and perspectives from a case study in Northeastern Italy

This paper originates from a contribution to the Conference “Crisi dei paesaggi, paesaggi della crisi. Quali vie d’uscita?” [Crisis of landscapes, landscapes of crisis. Which ways out?] held in Cagliari (Italy) in December, 2014. It focuses on the distance that exists today among the different approaches used to address the issue of landscape and the different ideas connected to the landscape concept. Starting from a model that schematises this distance in its different facets, the paper focuses on two of them, the “spatial” and the “social” dimensions, and outlines two landscape concepts, provocatively in opposition. On the one hand it identifies the “institutional landscape”, explicitly recognised but of limited spatial extension and ruled by an elite; on the other hand the “everyday landscape”, of which there is often little awareness, that encompasses the whole territory and is managed by the whole community. The European Landscape Convention, which refers explicitly to the landscape as “an essential component of people’s surroundings!” does not definitely solve this antithesis and bridge the gap between the two approaches. The results of research activity in a case study in North-eastern Italy confirmed the co-existence of these two opposite concepts in the relationships local people build with their place of life. Perceived landscape values and opinions of laypeople can be referred to the problematic practices and approaches that have intensely changed the landscape in that area and used to interpret them. An increase of awareness of different sets of values existing in a landscape seems the most appropriate strategy to overcome the opposition between the two landscape ideas and the questions of landscape change, through a wide process of “landscape literacy”, focused to the acquisition of a way to “look at” the landscape and to act responsibly on it.

Migrants and Non-Migrants Perception and Preferences

The increasing number of migrants and immigrants with Asian origin and a background of religion and philosophy like Buddhism is leading to a growing number of temple landscapes in Sweden, such as the King Chulalongkorn Memorial Building (Thai pavilion) in Jamtland and the Buddharama Temple (still under construction) in Fredrika, which would even be the largest Buddhist temple in Europe when finished. Moreover, the perception and estimation of both migrants and non-migrants are in like manner influenced by this multi-cultural environment (Buddhist Landscape). However, native and non-native people show a different recognition and understanding of temples as a result of their cultural background.

Hydropower Exploitation in the Piave River Basin (Italian Eastern Alps)

Renewable energies have been one of the main driving forces of European landscape change in the last ten years. Despite its acknowledged contribution to sustainable development, ‘renewable’ is not ipso facto ‘sustainable’: on the contrary renewable energies can have negative impacts and create both environmental and social conflicts. Landscape is often at the heart of these conflicts, both as an asset to protect and as a tool for use in debate. This situation leads us to reflect on the question of ‘landscapes of energy’. This paper investigates the relationships between energy production and the territory, using landscape as a tool for a critical review of past and current hydropower exploitation in the Piave river basin, in the Italian Eastern Alps. Regional policies and local practices related with the development of small hydropower plants are analysed from the point of view of the strategies, values and meanings expressed by the different stakeholders. The analysis reveals various weaknesses of the policies and the practices that undermine the objective of integrating energy into the landscape.