ABSTRACT
The problem is this. Landscapes and places are the contexts o f daily life, they are with us as we walk down the street or look through the windshield; we manipulate them in gardens, add to them with our purchases, use them as residents and tourists, and give meaning to them in our imaginations and memories. They are, in short, vital and subtle things, filled with specific significance and incapable o f exact delimitation or definition. Scientific and systematic methods, on the other hand, are standardized, objective, capable o f being used by others and producing results that can be checked. Their essential merit is that they make a complex situation intelligible by imposing an abstract fram ework on it. Trying to investigate places and landscapes by imposing standardized methods is like studying ballet by putting the dancers in straitjackets, or judging wines by measuring their alcohol content - the information obtained may be accurate but it seriously misrepresents the subject matter.
