Abstract
Landscape studies are an area of research that has emerged through diverse multi-sectoral and trans-disciplinary approaches. Different actors and stakeholders may have divergent and even competing needs, uses and aspirations from a landscape, views that are in many cases related with ecological processes and social or economic interests nested within these processes. In this paper, we explore the perceptions and views of different stakeholders on the future of “their” landscape for two rural areas in Crete: Messara and Asterousia. The areas, were linked in the past by transhumance practices with Asteroussia flocks overwintering in fallows in Messara. They have been separated by the intensification of sheep husbandry in Asterousia and the shift towards olive cultivation in Messara. Both areas face environmental issues, water pollution and soil degradation in Messara and soil erosion in Asterousia. Selected stakeholders were interviewed and asked to comment on possible future trajectories of their areas under different scenarios. The findings reveal diverging if not directly competing visions for reasons that seem to be related with the fact that social, economic and ecological processes act on different temporal and spatial scales. At the same time, some stakeholders failed to see interactions of social, economic and ecological processes and their landscape level outcomes. These findings are important in understanding how views about the landscape are formed and especially on how ecological concerns and components of a landscape can be integrated into an approach that seeks to conserve material and immaterial components of a landscape.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Number of pages | 0 |
| Journal | Default journal |
| Volume | 0 |
| Issue number | 0 |
| Publication status | Published - 8 Sept 2014 |
| Event | Permanent European Conference on the Study of the Rural Landscape: ‘Unravelling the Logics of Landscape’ - Gothenburg and Mariestad, Sweden Duration: 8 Sept 2014 → 12 Sept 2014 |