Invitation for ICOMOS-scholars: Journal of European Landscapes
Members of ICOMOS are invited to share their landscape research on a new international and peer reviewed platform, the Journal of European Landscapes. The large majority of landscape research has for a long time been local, regional or at most national. This is changing only slowly, but in recent years the interest in an international perspective is growing, partly due to ICOMOS and its focus on international cultural landscapes.
For this reason, the editors felt the time was right for a new journal that offers a platform for international comparative landscape studies, particularly aiming to address the heritage and history aspects, but also including the spatial, physical, visual, representational and philosophical dimensions. Between the national and the global, the European level speaks out, for three reasons.
1 Landscape is a European invention.
The concept of landscape developed from two different directions: as a term for a region, and the visual meaning of landscape. Both aspects make landscape into a complex phenomenon. Over the last centuries, landscapes were exported from Europe to other parts of the world, through migration or colonization. In many parts of the world, Europeans made landscapes based on their experiences at home. Much more recently, the European concept of landscape is becoming a world-wide feature, stimulated by the World Heritage Convention that redefined landscape and brought a global landscape discourse. This journal wants to stimulate discussions on the theories and concepts of landscape, as well as the historical developments and different uses of the term landscape.
2 Europe is becoming an important framework for landscape policies.
Two major institutions in Europe, the European Union and the Council of Europe, both developed a track record in landscape policies. The Council of Europe published in 2000 the European Landscape Convention (‘Florence Convention’), and the European Union has had a huge impact on the landscape through the Common Agricultural Policy.
3 Europe is also increasingly important framework for landscape research.
Europe has become an important framework for the research of landscape, with many international cooperation projects, both in academic research as well as in exchange between research and practice. Often the results of projects take the shape of case studies, but overarching conceptualisations, synthesis or international comparisons are few and far between. This journal aims to stimulate such overarching studies.
Aims of the Journal of European Landscapes
The Journal of European Landscapes aims at stimulating and documenting transnational research. By focusing on transnational comparative studies, the Journal of European Landscapes wants to stimulate international debate as well as research . Therefore the Journal of European Landscapes publishes three types of contributions:
1 Scientific papers
The Journal of European Landscapes will publish articles that transcend national borders and have an international (comparative) perspective on (rural, urban and industrial) landscapes. The Journal also welcomes more general and theoretical papers on the concept of landscape, with focus on the history and heritage of European landscapes.
2 Short articles on running or recently finished projects
The Journal of European Landscapes wants to document and share the outcomes of finished projects on European Landscape, particularly those in which a (world)heritage and history perspective is prominent.
3 Book reviews
The Journal of European Landscapes aims to publish reviews of books that address European landscape in their heritage and historical dimensions.
More information about the Journal