Landscape and Power in Geographical Space as a Social-Aesthetic Construct

Description

This book examines the power definiteness of landscape from a social constructivist perspective with a particular focus on the importance of aesthetic concepts of landscape in development. It seeks to answer the question of how societal notions of landscape emerge, how they are individually updated and how these ideas affect the use and design of physical space. It also analyzes how physical manifestations of societal activity impact on understandings of individual and societal landscapes and addresses the essential aspect of the social construction of landscape, cultural specificity, which in turn is discussed in the context of the expansion of a western landscape concept. The book offers an unprecedented, comprehensive and detailed examination of societal power relations in the context of landscape development. The numerous case studies from the physical manifestation of modern spatial planning in the United States, the power discourses concerning the design of model railway landscapes, and the medial production of stereotypical landscape notions shed light on the complex and multilayered interactions of collective and individual landscape references. It is a valuable resource for geographers, sociologists, landscape architects, landscape planners and philosophers. Front Matter ....Pages i-ix Introduction (Olaf Kühne)....Pages 1-10 Theoretical Foundations (Olaf Kühne)....Pages 11-48 The Genesis of Social Landscapes and Their Physical Manifestations (Olaf Kühne)....Pages 49-78 The Social Genesis of the Definition of Landscape (Olaf Kühne)....Pages 79-193 Case Studies (Olaf Kühne)....Pages 195-250 Conclusion (Olaf Kühne)....Pages 251-256