ABSTRACT

This conclusion presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. Katrin Lund and Karl Benediktsson draw our attention to an important debate conducted in the pages of the journal Environmental Values. It is about whether it makes sense to understand human relations with the constituents of the natural world as ways of conversing with them. The book explores the conventional dualisms associated with landscape, exploring notions of landscape and its relation with humans through the metaphor of conversation. Such an approach conceives of landscape as an actor in the ongoing communication that is inherent in any perception, recognising the often-ignored mutuality of encounters between human and non-human actors. Offering scope for an original and coherent approach to the study of landscape, the book appeals to scholars and researchers across a range of social sciences and humanities.