Landscape values and the question of cultural sustainability: Exploring an uncomfortable relationship in the case of Greece

ABSTRACT

The article highlights the factor of tentativeness in the applicability of the cultural sustainability concept to landscape values in the case of Greece. The authors used a comparative questionnaire survey to draw out indicative trends in lay landscape conscience (gauged as perceptions, values, preferences, feelings and behaviours) in relation to the Greek landscape in the Arcadia region and on the island of Lesvos. Differences were found between urban and rural respondents in the case study sites, in line with relevant literature. Since the disruption of ‘traditional’ organic forms of lay landscape conscience during Greece’s rapid post-war urbanization and rural exodus, Greek landscape conscience now seems to be going through a reformulation, in a new, more Western guise. In this context, cultural sustainability may, at first glance be irrelevant and even undesirable. However, the findings also indicate that cultural education and landscape awareness play a significant role in understanding and better handling of contemporary landscape issues. The authors conclude that Soini & Birkeland’s ‘eco-cultural civilization’ storyline of scientific discourse on cultural sustainability is the most appropriate way forward in landscape stewardship, since it supports cultural change through education and participatory governance, while also involving local values and knowledge.

EDITORS:

• Hannes Palang
• Catriona Turner

KEYWORDS:

• cultural sustainability
• Greece
• landscape
• perceptions
• values

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge Tataris Georgios and the Cartography and Geoinformatics Laboratory of the Department of Geography, University of the Aegean, for preparing the maps (Figs. 1 and 2) for this article.

Notes

1. According to the Hellenic Statistical Authority (2001), areas with less than 2000 inhabitants are characterized as rural. Moreover, rural areas are those that are ‘left over’ after the urban ones have been defined by using criteria such as population density and urban concentration (Halfacree 1995; Hoggart et al. 1995; Kizos & Vakoufaris 2006).