ABSTRACT
Research on landscape and globalization traverses a vast terrain, reflecting the array of relationships between the immutability of physical place and the fluidity of ideas. The theories that coalesce in this field of research are coloured by the complex nature of what it is to be human, and the enduring question of how we relate to where we are. The very core of our collective and individual identity is bound up in landscape, heightening feelings about threats of obliteration and change that are often associated with globalization. Counter to this are beliefs that the effects of globalization on the landscape are simply inevitable, or even welcome. As a means of charting the field of research, this chapter travels through three distinctive
realms: the global, the regional and the local. Rather than stepping through the scales incrementally, the two poles of this research spectrum are explored first – the global and the local. These extreme positions vividly illustrate the breadth of theory implicated in any consideration of landscape and globalization. At one extreme the acceptance of a global commonality generates theories that transcend particularity. And, at the other, there is a kind of denial, where ideas such as local distinctiveness seek to avoid the consequences of global flows of ideas. Having explored the two poles, the chapter proceeds to a theoretical equator, a midpoint – that of the region. As something smaller than the globe but larger than the locality, the region provides a point of negotiation between the extremes. While the sequence of global to local to regional provides an itinerary, the vehicle for
exploration is that of design – especially landscape architecture – allowing for a focus to be found within the immensity of the field of landscape and globalization. Two major recent conferences on landscape architecture and globalization illustrate the areas of investigation, with the contributions reflecting the breadth of the discipline, ranging from landscape ecological considerations through to the impact of globalization on design (Bowring and Swaffield 2004a, 2004b; Stewart et al. 2007; Swaffield and Bowring 2005). Landscape architecture is motivated by a vital need to engage with understandings of the local, the regional and the global, as it is a discipline which is not simply scholarly, but one which influences the very nature of the environment through translation of ideas and values into physical form. Design offers a unique research method, where the ‘experiment’ is the design itself. ‘Design as research’ is an emerging
research approach for design disciplines, where both hypothetical and actual problems are explored and tested, generating new knowledge and critical understanding. Even when not conceived of as design as research per se, a work of design can provide unique insight into a problem, and this chapter will allude to design experimentation alongside more conventional research.
