The LandBruk seminar series is open to all who are interested in, or curious about the Nordic region and various forms of land use. It is possible to attend the seminars in person or on Zoom. This seminar will be held in English.
Join Zoom Meeting.
Abstract
This talk introduces the HERA/CHANCE-funded project RURALEX -- "Knowledge in Crisis: The Dynamics of Environmental Expertise amidst Rural Change." RURALEX addresses the cumulative crisis of environmental expertise across rural Europe and investigates how this relates to broader processes of societal disenfranchisement. As a consortium of six universities based on a dozen case studies across rural Europe, the project is comparative in nature and it includes innovative multispecies methodologies. In this talk, I will introduce this broader framework and some of the project's innovations, before focusing on my own ethnographic work in the Italian Alps. Here I will outline the notion of a post-working landscape, and address some of the societal consequences of land abandonment and climate-induced environmental change. I will conclude with a few notes on what it means to "mourn" a landscape in this particular context.
About LandBruk
LandBruk (LandUse) is a group of researchers and students associated with the NorLab research group, who come together to discuss anthropological perspectives on land-use in the Nordics.