Ph.d.-forsvar 28. november 2014: The social context of land management
Landowners’ identity and relations in a peri-urban area
Ved: Ann-Sofie Richardt, Sektion for geografi, Københavns Universitet
Abstract:
During the last decades rural areas in proximity of urban centers have experienced an in-migration of new types of landowners to agricultural properties. Combined with the structural development in agriculture, the in-migration has implied a changed social and cultural composition of landowners. The development in the so called ‘peri-urban areas’ have particularly been associated with two dimensions of change; change of social relations between landowners and changes of the landscape. Together these changes represent a changed social context locally. The thesis claims that people, including landowners, are not unaffected by the social context in which they are embedded. Previous studies have, for example demonstrated that landowners are influenced by social norms of land-use and land management, particularly when these norms were shared by their social identity group. Also studies have showed that the landscape it-self communicate norms of the appropriate and acceptable land management in particular placed. On this background the aim of the thesis is to examine the role of the social context for landowners’ land management locally in a peri-urban area. Specifically, the role of landowners’ social identities and relations is examined with respect to land management decisions. The study thus contributes to the body of research aiming to supplement structural explanations of land-use and management change with socio psychological perspectives. The study is based on 41 semi-structured interviews with landowners in an area in proximity of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Supervisor:
Associate Professor Anne Gravsholt Busck, IGN
Assessment committee:
Associate Professor Lars Winther (chairman), IGN
Professor Marie Stenseke, Göteborg University – Sweden
Research Scientist Rob Burton, Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim – Norway
Tid: 28. november 2014 kl. 13.15
Sted: Auditorium C, IGN – Geography Section, Øster Voldgade 10, København K