AEP-22306 Landscape Economics and Politics

Course

Credits 6.00

Language of instruction:

Dutch.

Contents:

Landscapes are able to provide many different goods and services to society and have a multi-faceted character, which includes natural, cultural and societal values. Landscapes are also economic assets which can offer significant opportunities for the territorial and economic development of metropolitan areas. For example, they serve as a location of economic activities like housing and recreation. Landscapes may also be contested spaces, to which people attach diverse symbolic, economic and political value. Questions of memory and cultural identity, for instance, are often related to the production and the 'conservation' of specific landscapes, but also to their future developments.
Furthermore, landscape and land use are linked, the variety of land uses shapes the landscape. Landscapes are therefore not static, but they are constantly transformed due to planning and design activities, by both public and private actors, but also by the actual use of the people living and working in those same spaces. Questions of belonging and identity have in fact important implications for the economic and political understanding and practicing of landscapes. Land use is thus determined by a wide range of both economic and political factors that are often interlinked. For example, land demand increases because of a growing world population and a stimulation of bio-fuel use. Because of competing claims, specific policies are often implemented to 'govern' metropolitan landscapes. However, these policies are sometimes contested or resisted, especially when governments and markets fail to adequately address these competing claims. Furthermore, social innovation, from the top but also from the bottom, tend to modify our living landscapes, offering new opportunities for their economic use and for societal improvements. For all these reasons, the economics and the politics of landscape need to be understood in depth by planners, policy makers and landscape architects, together with the related implications in terms of landscape governance and questions of social inclusiveness, participation, gender and ethics.
The aim of the course is to provide knowledge about and insight in the economic and political aspects of landscapes use. The questions addressed are:
- which goods and services do landscapes produce?
- what is the relationship between landscape and land use?
- what economic and political factors determine land use?
- what is the influence of globalisation on land use?
- how does the land market function and who are the stakeholders?
- why do governments intervene in landscape and landscape transformation?
- how to value landscapes?
- how to finance location development?
- why are activities located where they are?
- what are the relevant government policies and instruments used?
- what are the pros and cons of public-private co-operation in landscape development?
- how to examine the politics of landscape in all its spatial implications and at the different scales?
- how to understand people's actual use of landscape and the cultural and political meanings attached to it?
- how to analyse the power of social innovation in shaping new landscapes and in offering new solution to existing problems?
- how to appreciate the gendered, multicultural and ethical dimension in landscape shaping and actual use?
The target group for this course is students of the bachelor programme Landscape Architecture and Planning (BLP) but students of other programmes interested in landscape economics and politics are welcome. It is the only course in the BLP programme were the main focus is on economic analysis of landscapes and its policies. The course is a second year course in the common part of the programme.

Learning outcomes:

After successful completion of this course students are expected to be able to:
- reproduce the economic and political descriptions and theories concerning the economics and politics of landscapes;
- apply theories on land use, landscape valuation, landscape development and location in exercises;
- apply theories on the cultural politics of landscape and reflect on their geographical implications;
- explain the economics and politics of landscapes;
- assess specific economic and political aspects of actual developments in the area of landscape economics and politics;
- understand social innovation in the production and use of landscape, including aspects of gender, multiculturalism and ethics.

Activities:

- attending lectures;
- studying the reader;
- doing exercises.

Examination:

Three tests with open questions of which the average result comprises the final mark. There is a minimum mark of 5 required for each of the tests.

Literature:

The other course material can be found on the Blackboard site.