Module Catalogue 2024/25

Pre Requisite Comment

None

Co Requisite Comment

None

Aims

This module provides the principal introduction to landscape concepts and theory for the programme. It will introduce students to the various, and sometimes competing and opposed, ways in which landscape has been conceptualised, defined and understood. It highlights the philosophical theories, critical positions, and socio-political agendas which underpin different approaches to landscape and drivers of (rapid) environmental/ecological change.

The module draws upon recent writings in landscape (architecture, planning, management and ecology), cultural geography, environmental ethics, ecology, and heritage studies. It explores core themes at the nature-culture-environment nexus, and will relate these to the interlinked crises of our times: globalisation, urbanisation, climate change, pollution, loss of biodiversity, and mass migration of populations (human and non-human).

Outline Of Syllabus

The syllabus explores themes including (but not limited to):
- Landscape, Art and Imaginaries
- Heritage Landscapes
- Borderscapes and Militarism
- Landscape and Justice (social, environmental, climatic, multi-species)
- Migratory Landscapes (including biosecurity)
- Seascape (character and assessment)
- Re/Wilding (and biodiversity net gain)
- Post-industrial landscape (priority habitats and conservation gain)

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

Knowledge and understanding of the way landscape has been conceptualised at different times and in different places.

Insight into the philosophies, ideologies and critical positions which underpin different approaches to landscape.

An understanding of the social, economic, political, cultural and environmental issues which are revealed through the medium of landscape, and an understanding of landscape as an amalgam or hybrid of 'nature' and culture.

Identification of human-non-human-environment pressures and potential conflicts, and opportunities to achieve positive outcomes for people and 'nature'.

Intended Skill Outcomes

The ability to look critically at landscape as a hybrid of 'nature' and culture.

The ability to consider landscape from a range of conceptual and theoretical positions.

The ability to relate the representation of present and future landscapes to the social, political and ecological crises of our times.

A sensibility toward the complexities of landscape which will assist in imagining, and influencing, sustainable future landscapes (social, ecological, and climatic) withs social and ecological gains

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Students will be introduced to a range of different definitions and understandings of landscape, the aim being to stimulate their own critical responses to landscape issues, regardless of their original disciplinary backgrounds, and thus to prepare them to produce their own creative responses to landscape issues across the programme.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The creative reflective diary is intended to assess understanding of the material presented in the module and to provide an opportunity to respond critically to this material, and to engage critically with wider literature.

General Notes

N/A