Landscape as a Factor of Creating Identity

Landscape as a Factor of Creating Identity
22-24 June 2012, Jaroslaw, Poland
http://www.v4landscape.com/conference/?lang=EN&location=register

Landscape is something different from space. It is closely related to the local culture. As such it cannot be measured in hectares and meters, it is not homogenous. It is a complex of spheres and 'points of light', full of symbols and places of memory. A tree can be a tree like thousands of other for a stranger, but in the same time can be the only tree for a local. The tree under which he or she played as a child, under which he or she buried beloved dog. Places and objects of importance, being 'points of light', have all a story to tell. They have been created and shaped by people in the past and in return they have been part of enculturation and education of new generations. Contemporary landscape is the best monument of history - it contains traces of human deeds from the beginning up to our times. There are places, like Stonehenge, that have been observed by hundreds of generations and during all those years influenced human culture. The landscape plays a role impossible to overestimate in creation of identity. People who grow up in a certain environment tend to develop personal, sentimental approach to the landscape they know and describe as 'their'. These sentiments can be easily observed in poetry, music, paintings or sculptures, especially created by artists who miss their familiar landscape being on exile.

The landscape as a factor of creating identity, strongly linked with the human feelings, influence perceived quality of life. It can be seen as hidden potential that can be actively and purposefully used to form conscious and deeply integrated societies, yet fragile, easy to be neglected or even destroyed by outside forces or careless development.

This interdisciplinary approach to the question of landscape is still innovatory and rare, especially in the Central-Eastern Europe, where the times of war and communism have by a large scale changed traditional landscape and very often disturbed it. Understanding it's role in shaping of societies and everyday way of life plays crucial part in preserving what's left of the past and strengthening peoples self awareness as a part of society, culture and tradition. Therefore it is needed to initiate a theoretical discourse which may in future bring new solutions and begin to change the way of thinking.

We are inviting representatives of such disciplines as ethnology and cultural anthropology, archeology, history, sociology, musicology, cultural studies, humanistic geography, psychology, architecture, arts etc. to deliver papers.The presentations should take 20 minutes (plus 10 minutes of discussion). You should be ready to send it in a form of articles for the post-conference publication. Abstracts of articles will be published on the site a month before the conference.

How to send an abstract?

After registering for the conference as a speaker, an email with a link will be send. Please use this link to confirm registration. On the same page there will be a place to copy paste the abstract. You can use the supplied link many times and even change the abstract by pasting a new one. The deadline for submitting and changing abstracts is the 11th of March 2012. During the conference speakers will be asked to provide final version of their presentation articles in English before the 30th of August 2012.
If any questions arise please feel free to contact us at wojciech.bedynski@gmail.com.

IMPORTANT:
There is no conference fee for participants whose paper has been accepted (limit: 30). The organizers will provide accommodation, full board, conference handouts and a half-day trip. Participants will
cover only the costs of transport to and from Jaroslaw.