Unlearning "Landscape"

Annals of The Association of American Geographers. Jan2017, Vol. 107 Issue 1, p14-21. 8p. 2 Color Photographs

Abstract:

Landscape is a key concept in geography, one that has been critically engaged with by geography's subdisciplines using various conceptual and methodological approaches. Thus, landscape should be a key foundation with which to engage intradisciplinarity within geography. From a variety of strands within geography, however, the definitions that have emerged around landscape can still exclude a range of other voices and perspectives that can usefully contribute to, define, and reconstitute landscape. In this article, we present an argument from different perspectives about the limits of the landscape concept. We present two examples of the use of the landscape concept within physical and human geography, showing in both how the inclusion of other voices and spatial traditions is essential for more inclusive descriptions and provincializations of the concept itself. We argue that, ultimately, efforts to unlearn our strictly defined and bounded concept of landscape will allow us to engage radical difference in spatial terms. We also suggest that beyond just intradisciplinarity within geography, geographers should work hard to incorporate other voices, traditions of thought, and ecologies in and beyond the conceptual domain of landscape.

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