The Landscape and Environment of Inter-war England - an interdisciplinary approach

这个以两次世界大战期间的英国乡村为主题的网络，既基于一个时期，也基于一种方法。1919年至1939年是环境压力、农业衰退和农村人口性质变化导致人们对农村景观普遍敏感的时期。许多同时代人持有的一个中心观念是，农村本身作为一个灰暗的社会环境系统，正受到城市扩张、农村贫困、旅游业的增长、农业人口的持续减少以及传统社会和文化结构崩溃等因素的威胁。这种对农村危机的看法首先植根于对社会和经济衰落的描述--农业作为一个有生存能力的产业已经“结束”的想法。在这种农业“终结”的概念下，它所支持的农场、村庄和景观的有机社会结构本身也受到了威胁。然而，与此同时，对农村地区的态度也是积极的。对于许多来自城镇的人来说，农村成了一个休闲的地方--逃离城市和忙碌工作的机会。对于另一群人来说，虽然不完全来自东南部的繁荣地区，但两次世界大战之间的时期给了他们一个机会，即使不是在乡下生活，至少也是在绿树成荫的“郊区风景”中生活。这款产品的反应复杂，来自不同作家、艺术家、画家、音乐家和电影制作人，以及农业社区、步行或骑自行车的新农村“旅行者”，或者那些在乡村地区寻找田园诗的人。在两次世界大战期间，英国乡村承担了广泛的文化意义，但这种意义是有争议的，而不是一致同意的。该网络采用的方法将是跨学科的--将来自艺术和人文学科的学者聚集在一起，举行一系列研讨会，重点是关键主题；想象村庄，风景中的性别，新的乡下人和生活在风景中的女性。每个研讨会将邀请来自不同学科的与会者围绕共同问题，在各自不同的主题领域内介绍纸质材料和讨论文件。其中包括对危机和“威胁”的表现，包括视觉和文化；景观和环境的历史和地理结构；那些生活在那个时期的人的“经历”；以及农村和城市地区不同部门的反应。这项研究还将从不同地区的危机经验中得到启发。这些研讨会是为发展而设计的，因为通过将新的研究人员(特别是研究生)和更成熟的学者聚集在一起，该网络鼓励两个群体从长期合作的智力环境中受益。研讨会将产生一个新的综合体的开始，在这个综合体中，可以从不同的角度理解两次世界大战期间英国乡村的文化和社会会议。这将为跨艺术和人文学科的新研究议程开辟道路，并向传统和当代的衰落和失败观念提出挑战。

This network, addressing the English Countryside in the inter-war years, is based both on a period and on a method. The years 1919-1939 were a period in which environment pressure, agricultural decline and changes in the nature of the rural population created a widespread sensitivity towards the rural landscape. A central notion held by many contemporaries was that the very countryside itself as a livid socio-environmental system was under threat from, for example, urban sprawl, rural poverty, the growth of tourism, continued declinein the numbers in agriculture and the collapse of traditional social and cultural structures. This perception of a rural crisis was rooted first in the accounts of social and economic decline-the idea that agriculture was 'finished' as a viable industry. With this concept of the 'end' of agriculture, the organic social structures of farm, village and landscape, which it had supported, themselves came under threat. Yet, at the same time, there was also a positive attitude to rural areas. For many people from the towns the countryside became a site of leisure- the chance to escape from the city and the round of work. To yet another group, mainlyalthough not entirely from the prosperous areas of the south-east, the interwar period gave a chance to live if not in the country then at least ina leafy 'suburban landscape'. This product complex reactions from a variety of writers, artists, painters, musicians and film makers, as well as the farming community, the new country 'trippers' on foot or on bike, or those who sought a rural idyll in the country districts. Int he interwar-period, the English countryside assumed a widespread cultural significance but one which was contested rather than consensual.The method adopted by the network will be interdisciplinary- to bring together scholars from across the Arts and Humanities in a series of seminars which will focus on key themes; imagining the village, genderinhg the landscape, new countrymen and women living in the landscape. Each seminar will invite participants from different disciplines to present papaers and discussion documents from within their discrete subject areas around common questions. These include ideas of the representation of crisis and 'threat', both visual and literacy; the historical and geographical constructions of landscape and environment; the 'experience' of those who lived through the period; and the responses of different sectors within the rural and urban areas. The research will also be informed by the different regional experiences of crisis. The seminars are designed to be developmental, in that by bringing together new researchers (especially postgraduates) with more established scholars, the network encourages both groups to benefit from working in a long-term co-operative intellectual environment.The seminars will produce the beginnings of a new synthesis in which the cultural and social meetings of the inter-war English countryside can be understood from a variety of perspectives. This will open the way for a new research agenda across the Arts and Humanities as well a providing a challenge to the conventional and contemporary notions of decline and failure.