Inget landskap är en ö : dialektik och praktik i öländska landskap

The complex character of rural landscapes implies a constant interaction between mind and matter as well as between nature and society. In landscapes, the established division of reality into nature and culture appears all but natural. This book points to the possibilities of regarding landscape as a dialectical process. Landscape is here used as an analytical device to examine nature-culture relations, in order to understand the ways in which this dichotomy works in contemporary society. This sheds light on the contradictory qualities of rural landscapes - in many respects culturally constructed, and yet at the same time often conceived of as nature.

The book is based on examples from the island of Öland. Agriculture, grazing cattle and other kinds of usage have formed this rural landscape through history, and still do so. Today's visitors have various motives for regarding the landscapes of Öland as interesting and valuable. Contemporary landscapes are often used and experienced in many different ways, which sometimes leads to conflicts between divergent ways of appreciating the same piece of land. If landscapes are characterised by their processual and dialectical qualities, indeed if landscape is process rather than prospect or property, it might seem somewhat problematic to conserve such ever-changing landscapes. The inscription of Södra Ölands Odlingslandskap (The Cultural Landscape of Southern Öland) on Unesco's World Heritage List is here analysed as one example of an emergent re-thinking of conservation strategies in agricultural landscapes.

The increasing interest in rural landscapes expressed by authorities, scientists and tourists alike, has in many cases been characterised by a nostalgic looking back towards presumed idylls in rural communities of past times. The author of this book argues for a more future-oriented interest in landscapes, and states that reflections about sustainable relations between nature and society should benefit from an awareness of the dialectical qualities of landscapes. No landscape is an island, entire of itself, neither in space nor in time. Landscapes must be regarded as an integral part of society, rather than as a static background for social life.