A workshop on resilience and cultural landscapes is going to be held in Berlin, Germany from 15 to 16 June 2010. It is currently calling for papers (see below). The workshop is described in a downloadable pdf.
It states:
The workshop aims to provide an interdisciplinary forum for about 20 PhD students, post-docs, and senior researchers from all fields of landscape research, including geography, landscape ecology, institutional economics, rural sociology, agricultural and forest sciences, and land change science.
Drawing on case studies provided by participants, the workshop aims at creating, respectively enhancing, theoretical insights into the social-ecological resilience of cultural landscapes through coming to terms with – and challenging – existing concepts of “driving forces”, “thresholds”, “adaptive cycles” and “adaptive management”. We expect that an improved understanding of these issues will facilitate the fostering and advancement of future research on the resilience and sustainable management of cultural landscapes.
The basis of the workshop, and starting point for extensive discussion sessions, will be empirical studies focusing on cultural landscapes as social-ecological systems. We are especially looking forward to contributions linking ecological analysis with insights into the social processes tied to changing cultural landscapes.
Specifically, we call for papers that:
- analyze drivers at different temporal and spatial scales for determining the state of cultural landscapes;
- identify thresholds and regime shifts that result from crossing these thresholds;
- examine ways to enhance the resilience of cultural landscapes so as to avoid shifts towards undesired structural or functional states;
- discuss the contributions that the adaptive cycle provides for the understanding of cultural landscape dynamics;
- specify adaptive management strategies for the restoration of natural and social capital in traditional or “novel“ cultural landscapes;
- contrast the “social-ecological systems” perspective with the “cultural landscape” concept.
The outcome of the workshop is to be published either in an edited book or in a special issue of a relevant journal. The geographic focus of the workshop will be on Europe, but reference to other cultural landscapes of the world is also welcome
Please send an abstract (ca. 300 words) to Claudia Bieling or Tobias Plieninger by 28 February 2010. Notifications of acceptance will be sent out by 14 March 2010. Final papers are due by 30 May 2010.
Costs of participation in the seminar will be covered. Participants are expected to bear expenses for transportation and accommodation themselves. To a limited extent, we can additionally provide travel support to people who would be unable to attend the workshop otherwise. If applicable, send your request for financial assistance together with your abstract.
The workshop will include keynote presentations by:
- Mauro Agnoletti, University of Florence (Italy)
- Carole Crumley, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (USA) / Stockholm Resilience
- Centre (Sweden)
- Lesley Head, University of Wollongong (Australia)
- Ann Kinzig, Arizona State University (USA)
- Mats Widgren, Stockholm University (Sweden)