Joan Nogué

La dimensión comunicativa del paisaje: Una propuesta teórica y aplicada

The fusion of knowledge, the interrelationship of disciplines and, finally, the interaction of learning fields, provide new challenges for an auto denominated global society. The contemporary value of landscape, linked to the patent commodification of culture, the commercial construction of identities, the triumph of inauthenticity, of the induced representation or the economy of symbolism, open up great prospects for studying the symbolic value of landscape. The rapprochement of geographical praxis to the study of space intangibles, linked to the discovery of emotional geographies, besides the growing interest of communication a science for the territorial discourse, allow us to envisage a communicative study of landscape based on a fusion of geography and communicational knowledge. The balancing of the variables: geography, landscape, emotion and communication, enables to progress towards analysing the emotionalisation of space to discern its intangible value, which emerges from the application of different communication techniques.

Landscape, Territory, and Civil Society in Catalonia

In recent decades intense territorial transformations in European Mediterranean countries have caused radical changes in their landscapes, with a resulting impact on the territorial identity of local societies. Faced with the risk of irreversible loss of sense of place and of local identity, as a result of nonconsensual processes almost always poorly explained by the administration, civil society has recently reacted in an increasingly indignant and organized manner, demanding a new culture of territory. This article analyzes, in the case of Catalonia, the interaction between landscape, territory, and civil society and demonstrates that this interaction, organized in a large number of associations in defence of territorial identity, has shown itself to be extraordinarily vital and dynamic. In this context, landscape has been revealed as the catalyst and unifying element of growing conflicts of a territorial and environmental nature palpable in Catalan society.

The communicative dimension of landscape: A theoretical and applied proposal

The fusion of knowledge, the interrelationship of disciplines and, finally, the interaction of learning fields, provides new challenges for an auto denominated global society. The contemporary value of landscape, linked to the patent commodification of culture, the commercial construction of identities, the triumph of inauthenticity, of the induced representation or the economy of symbolism, open up great prospects for studying the symbolic value of landscape. The rapprochement of geographical praxis to the study of space intangibles, linked to the discovery of emotional geographies, besides the growing interest of communicational sciences on the territorial discourse, allow us to envisage a communicative study of landscape based on a fusion of geographical and communicational knowledge. The balancing of the variables: geography, landscape, emotion and communication, enables the progress towards analysing the emotionalisation of space to discern its intangible value, which emerges from the application of different communication techniques.

Landscape identities in Catalonia

Abstract This article aims to analyse the subject of landscape modifications and the absorption of new elements within a context that enables broader reflection on the creation of territorial identities by consciously intervening in existing imaginaries. Although an extensive literature has been generated around imaginaries and landscape imaginaries, the benefits of creating new imaginaries or, if you will, new ‘landscapes of reference’ are not frequently touched upon as a constructive reaction to the homogenisation processes generated by the intense globalisation our lives are immersed in. The following pages deal with all these matters, taking into consideration the situation in Catalonia within the European context.

Visual landscape as a key element of place branding

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to propose an initial, exploratory and tentative theoretical construct related to the current consumption of landscape as a key symbolic and physical element in territorial representation and evocation, and for the deployment of place branding strategy. It constructs a line of argument to support what shall be referred to as “landscape branding”, that is, the paradigmatic role of landscape in place branding. It is, therefore, of interest to define the value of landscape as a social and cultural construction, which is why the paper awards importance to the specific analysis of their capacity for visual and/or aesthetic evocation within the context of a general branding strategy for geographical spaces. Design/methodology/approach To develop a sufficient proposal for sustaining “a theory of landscape branding”, the paper deploys a meta-analysis, that is, an extensive review and interpretation of the literature related to visual landscape and place branding, to propose a tentative initial approach to landscape-infused place branding theory. Findings The relationship existing between landscape images and texts and their possible situating and subsequent interpreting within the context of the political, cultural and economic logics of contemporary society give rise to a renewed analytical framework for cultural geographies (Wylie, 2007). At this point, place branding becomes a recurring argument for the consumption of carefully staged places, representing, to use Scott’s terms (2014), the arrival of a cognitive-cultural capitalism characteristic of post-Fordism. Practical implications From a practical perspective, the landscape branding approach provides several benefits. First of all, regardless of the fact that many commentators have argued that logos, slogans and advertising campaigns are relatively ineffective in place branding, practitioners still seem to be focussed on these visual design and advertising tools. The landscape branding approach facilitates an identity-focussed perspective that reconfirms the importance of linking reality with perception and hence reinforces the need to link place branding to policy-making, infrastructure and events. Social implications Landscapes’ imageability facilitates visual storytelling and the creation of attractive symbolic actions (e.g. outdoor events/arts in attractive landscape and augmented reality or landscaping itself). This is the type of imaginative content that people easily share in social media. And, of course, landscape branding reiterated the importance of experience. If policymakers and publics alike understand this considerable symbolic value of landscape, it might convince them to preserve it and, hence, contribute to sustainability and quality of life. Originality/value The novelty lies not in the familiar use of visual landscape resources to promote places, but in the carefully orchestrated construction of gazes, angles, representations, narratives and interpretations characteristic of geographic space, which somehow hijack the spontaneous gaze to take it to a certain place. Everything is perfectly premeditated. According to this, the visual landscape represents a critical point as a way of seeing the essence of places through a place branding strategy. In this sense, that place branding which finds in visual landscape a definitive argument for the projection of aspirational places imposes a new “way of seeing” places and landscape based on a highly visual story with which to make a particular place desirable, not only for tourism promotion purposes but also with the intention of capturing talent, infrastructures and investment, among other objectives.

The Character of the Volcanic Landscape of La Garrotxa

All landscapes are the perceptible product of a dynamic combination of abiotic (geological substrata), biotic (flora and fauna) and anthropic (human activities) elements that convert the whole into a social and cultural amalgam in a continual state of evolution. The landscape is thus both a physical reality and the cultural representation that we make of it. It is the visible external physiognomy of a certain part of the Earth’s surface and the individual and social perception that it generates—a tangible geographical entity whose interpretation is intangible. It is both the signifier and the signified, the container and the contents, reality and fiction. That is, it has a physical, material dimension and a spiritual, symbolic and perceptive dimension. Human societies use their cultures to transform original landscapes into cultural landscapes that are characterised not only by certain types of constructions, for example, but also by the translation of human values and sentiments onto the very landscape. Thus, the volcanic landscape of La Garrotxa is a paradigm as it encompasses and concentrates all these ingredients in a highly singular fashion that render it attractive on both a European and world scale.

La contribución del paisaje visual en la generación de marcas territoriales

El paisaje ha sido y sigue siendo un elemento de primer orden en la representatividad fisica y simbolica del territorio. En los ultimos tiempos, los procesos de promocion de los lugares han experimentado una profesionalizacion de las estrategias de creacion de relatos territoriales habitualmente asociados a imaginarios paisajisticos. Este articulo pretende situar el actual consumo visual de paisajes en el marco de las nuevas estrategias de promocion y/o dinamizacion economica del territorio, que tienen en la generacion de marcas de territorio a uno de sus mas claros ejemplos. Con tal fin, se propondra, mediante una extensa revision critica de la literatura vinculada a paisaje visual y marcas de lugares, una aproximacion tentativa e inicial hacia una ‘nueva’ economia territorial, que tiene en el paisaje visual y en el branding territorial a dos de sus pilares fundamentales. En este marco de consumo simbolico de lugares, se aportaran algunas evidencias preliminares sobre el papel relevante que desempena el paisaje y su capacidad de evocacion simbolica para la generacion de imaginarios geograficos proyectados a traves de marcas asociadas a distintos lugares.

Encadré n°4 - L’observatoire catalan du paysage et la création de réseaux de paysage

Le monde d’aujourd’hui se trouve face a des realites polyedriques et a des enjeux de plus en plus globaux et interconnectes, difficiles a aborder a partir des specialisations et des regards sectoriels que nous avons construits au fil du temps (Innerarity, 2011). Ces enjeux exigent que nous soyons innovants, tant dans le contenu que dans les facons d’agir. Ils nous obligent a nous reinventer, a assumer la pluralite des points de vue et a etre ouverts a de nouvelles formes d’organisation, a de ...