Imagining the natural world Flashcards
Define social construction
A specific set meanings that became attributed to the characteristics of people and places by common social and cultural change
Define imaginative geographies
Representations of place, space and landscape that structure peoples understanding of the world, and in turn help shape their actions
Example to explain imaginative geographies
Wild life documentaries
- Distorted view of predator-prey relationship
- Focus on action and territory
- Absence of human world
How are landscapes represented?
- All representations are mediated; offer one view of nature
- Representations are interventions - shouldn’t be taken at face value
- Competing representations of a particular landscape
How is Yellowstone a representation of colonel wilderness?
- Don’t think about the people driven out
- Tribes had cultural, spiritual connection to land, also shaped and managed it - it was never wild at all
- Europeans were blind to this - political
Outline the wilderness and the American dream
- Wilderness stands as last remaining place where civilisation has not infected earth
- National identity connected to organisation and management
- What we behold as nature is just the reflection of our own longings and desires
Outline England and the rural idyll
- Idealised image of the countryside and life
- Spiritually nourishing and natural
- Connect to rhythms of the earth
- Relations to national identity - pastoral landscapes
Outline post-modern perspectives
Argues that there is no one correct way of seeing the world, but many different possible interpretations
Outline deconstruction
- Need to explore different perspectives and voices into texts - maps, images
- Texts can constrain knowledge of places/spaces
- How can we reconstruct some texts - maps
Describe postcolonial analysis and deconstruction
- Maps and colonies are constructed by colonisers for themselves
- Maps assert authority and claim to the landscape
- Make landscapes seem empty, actually inhabited
- These images can be reconstructed by those who lived there
Why are representations and geographical imaginations important
They influence how we treat other places and people; what we do to them
How do representations influence attitudes and actions towards access
- Influences contemporary uses of space
- Wilderness subject to human shaping through actions shaped by our values
- Protect our idea of wilderness - national identity
How is the rural idyll managed?
- The Countryside Commission
- Conserve and enhance beauty of English countryside
- Wider vision of multi purpose countryside
- Managed so environmental qualities are sustained
