Foraging for identity: the relationships between landscape activities and landscape identity after catastrophic landscape change

Abstract

In this article, we deal with landscape activities in relation to changing landscape identity after a major wildfire in Sweden in 2014. The aim was to investigate the relationships between 22 landscape activities (before the fire) and 2 components (emotion and cognition) of landscape identity (before and after the fire). A total of 656 respondents living nearby the fire area participated in this study. Before the fire, a positive association was found between the activities of enjoying nature and foraging, and both components of landscape identity. This suggests that the more participants enjoyed nature and picked berries and mushrooms, the stronger their attachment to the landscape (emotion), and the more they remembered and reasoned about the landscape (cognition). Post fire, these relationships were found only between the two components of landscape identity and foraging. This implies a significant role of this type of activity for keeping alive' landscape identity.

Keywords

Landscape change; natural disaster; forest fire; landscape activity; landscape identity

Published in

Landscape Research
2019, volume: 44, number: 3, pages: 303-319
Publisher: ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD

SLU Authors

• Butler, Andrew

  • Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU)

• Sarlöv-Herlin, Ingrid

  • Department of Landscape Architecture, Planning and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Ode Sang, Åsa

  • Department of Landscape Architecture, Planning and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Ångman, Elin

  • Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Human Geography

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01426397.2019.1580352

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/99664