ABSTRACT
Many separate bodies of literature have discussed the role that images of nature and society play in our conceptions. This chapter introduces the book, which systematically identifies the way these images are formed by frontier-oriented narratives which have undergirded much Anglo-American and Anglocentric thought. This book both shows that these were never held empirically and contrasts them with the situation in northern Europe, or Fennoscandia, where diverging assumptions are integral to this day. The book thus discusses the ways in which historical thought patterns, formed for very different reasons than exist today, continue to shape our assumptions about not only nature but also the relation between urban and rural areas, and our understanding of ourselves in relation to environmental crises.
