Changing landscapes, changing lives: how can narrative and biographical perspectives improve landscape decision making?

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Over the last 30 years, landscape has become a key concept in arts & humanities research. We now realize that landscapes are neither purely natural nor entirely human constructs but emerge as a result of a complex, ongoing interplay between ecological and cultural processes. Yet there remain significant gaps in our understanding. These are partly due to differences of methodology and approach between the humanities and sciences. Humanities scholars focus on cultural influences whilst scientists work mainly with an ecosystems framework. There are also divergences within the arts & humanities between theory-driven research traditions, such as phenomenology, and the empiricism of landscape historians. These divergent scholarly traditions do not always map easily onto the experiences and concerns of stakeholders (such as conservationists and those seeking to improve access to the landscape for disadvantaged and underrepresented groups), or the needs of policy makers.Overcoming these difficulties is a complex challenge that scholars have been seeking to address for some time, through the work of the Landscape Research Group and previous AHRC initiatives such as the Landscape and Environment Strategic Programme (2005-10), in which the PI participated. The proposed Network seeks to contribute to this ongoing effort by bringing together scholars interested in biographical and narrative approaches to understanding landscape. This approach has flourished in recent years in cultural history, human geography, rural sociology and literary, life-writing and cultural studies. It has drawn attention from scholars such as environmental psychologists, anthropologists and social ecologists, and environmental scientists. Biographical and narrative methods offer promising opportunities for academic convergence and stakeholder engagement, both in relation to public-facing conservation and education organisations like the National Trust, the New Forest National Park Authority and the Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) and for campaigning organisations aiming to protect and improve access to the countryside such as National Parks England and CPRE.The proposed network has three key aims: (1) to explore the interdisciplinary potential of biographical and narrative perspectives on landscape and hence (2) to promote dialogue between scholars working on landscape across the arts and humanities, and social/natural scientists and between scholars and landscape stakeholders with a view to (3) developing research-based concepts, paradigms and models that can inform better landscape decision making.The proposal sits within the AHRC's Strategic Priorities Fund Landscape Decisions: Towards a New Framework for Using Land Assets. Within the overall remit of biographical and narrative approaches, it seeks to use five symposia, featuring leading landscape studies scholars from a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds and non-academic stakeholders from conservation, public engagement and campaigning organisations to review on-going research and identify potential new agendas and research methods. Towards the end of the Network's schedule, plans will be made to hold an international conference at MERL to showcase the work generated by the symposia and to open up further avenues of enquiry, debate and collaboration.The Network will establish a website featuring summaries of research papers, reports of the symposia, a discussion forum and links to related resources. A blog will be created. An article on how biographical and narrative approaches can contribute to landscape decision making will be published in a refereed journal and a collection of papers from the symposia will be published. The PI and CI will also edit a journal special issue on biographical and narrative understandings of landscape and celebrated photographer and network participant Ingrid Pollard will create an intervention/exhibition around the network's themes at MERL.