Alltagsweltliche Konstruktionen von Kulturlandschaft

Abstract

In recent years, we are observing a growing interest in landscape by scientists and other experts as well as by people who live in it or make use of it. For most of us, landscape is an essential part of everyday life, being regarded as our natural surroundings. In this paper, an everyday perspective has been adopted to gain insight into the way meanings are conferred to landscapes by the people who live there. A case study approach had been chosen in order to cover a range of various types of landscapes. Three selected landscapes are characterized by changes in their function, design and use at different stages. It can be assumed that perceptions and attributions of significance are particularly intense when changes touch the individual’s daily life, e.g. in the context of experiencing the loss of familiar surroundings. The importance of the subjective approach proposed here is that it focuses attention on the construction of landscape as symbolic environment rather than as nature or scenery. The aim is to deepen the understanding of the subjective construction of landscape.