Holding values in place: The governance of place-making in globally embedded cities
(2024) SGEM07 20241Department of Human Geography
- Abstract
- Values lie at the core of landscaping processes. In human geography, the concept of landscape describes the way in which societies relate to space through collectively interacting with their environment. Landscapes are a way of seeing and perceiving physical space, assigning meaning to it, and shaping it by giving materiality to imaginations. Values constitute the nodes of the society-landscape nexus. Not only do they influence perceptions and conceptions of space, but they also motivate action and underpin place-making processes. With increasing internationalisation of economies, politics, and societies, values and sources of agency multiply and diversify, giving rise to an intricate relationship between stakeholders who engage in... (More)
- Values lie at the core of landscaping processes. In human geography, the concept of landscape describes the way in which societies relate to space through collectively interacting with their environment. Landscapes are a way of seeing and perceiving physical space, assigning meaning to it, and shaping it by giving materiality to imaginations. Values constitute the nodes of the society-landscape nexus. Not only do they influence perceptions and conceptions of space, but they also motivate action and underpin place-making processes. With increasing internationalisation of economies, politics, and societies, values and sources of agency multiply and diversify, giving rise to an intricate relationship between stakeholders who engage in place-making practices and shape the space they encounter according to their personal perceptions, imaginations, desires, needs, and goals. The aggregated interest results in high levels of place contestedness, in which the ultimate constitution of a landscape reflects dominant values or the values of dominating agents. While shared and resonating aspirations can facilitate the accomplishment of goals, diverging interests create tensions among stakeholders. Due to the contingency of social structures and value sets, landscapes find themselves in a constant state of transition. As such, their constitution is always evolving, and development trajectories can be changed at any time. Thus, it is important to have a thorough understanding of each actor´s values and aspirations for the landscape in question as well as the power relations among stakeholders and their capabilities to shape the environment. Knowledge of the underlying power structures, combined with an awareness of each stakeholder´s aspirations, allows us to renegotiate reality and enhance the world we live in. This consideration, which has strong implications for policymaking, builds the point of departure for the research topic of my thesis. For eliciting how the values of a myriad of stakeholders are interwoven in landscapes which are globally governed, I use a two-fold
approach. I take the concept of multilevel governance as it is used in political science to make sense of actors and their capacity to engage and intervene in landscaping practices. The multi-scalar and multi-actor perspective implied in the multilevel governance framework is conducive to grasp place contestedness in the wake of globalisation dynamics. Having identified the governance structures, I turn to the concept of landscape and scrutinise the values stakeholders hold, assign, and infuse into the landscape. Once conceptualised, I turn theoretical considerations into practice by conducting a case study in the city of Venice, Italy. Due to its cultural endowment, Venice is one of the most famous tourist destinations in the world and consequently displays high levels of place contestedness with actors at all scales engaging in landscaping practices. Apart from yielding a myriad of important insights into power structures and governance mechanisms in Venice as well as each actor’s interests in and aspirations for the city, my conceptual framework has proven conducive as an analytical tool to which policymakers can return when seeking to enhance multi-scalar cooperation and increase place values for all stakeholders. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9155661
- author
- Hettrich, Christina LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- SGEM07 20241
- year
- 2024
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- keywords
- values, place-making, landscaping, multilevel governance, global embeddedness
- language
- English
- id
- 9155661
- date added to LUP
- 2024-06-03 08:03:03
- date last changed
- 2024-06-03 08:03:03
@misc{9155661,
abstract = {{Values lie at the core of landscaping processes. In human geography, the concept of landscape describes the way in which societies relate to space through collectively interacting with their environment. Landscapes are a way of seeing and perceiving physical space, assigning meaning to it, and shaping it by giving materiality to imaginations. Values constitute the nodes of the society-landscape nexus. Not only do they influence perceptions and conceptions of space, but they also motivate action and underpin place-making processes. With increasing internationalisation of economies, politics, and societies, values and sources of agency multiply and diversify, giving rise to an intricate relationship between stakeholders who engage in place-making practices and shape the space they encounter according to their personal perceptions, imaginations, desires, needs, and goals. The aggregated interest results in high levels of place contestedness, in which the ultimate constitution of a landscape reflects dominant values or the values of dominating agents. While shared and resonating aspirations can facilitate the accomplishment of goals, diverging interests create tensions among stakeholders. Due to the contingency of social structures and value sets, landscapes find themselves in a constant state of transition. As such, their constitution is always evolving, and development trajectories can be changed at any time. Thus, it is important to have a thorough understanding of each actor´s values and aspirations for the landscape in question as well as the power relations among stakeholders and their capabilities to shape the environment. Knowledge of the underlying power structures, combined with an awareness of each stakeholder´s aspirations, allows us to renegotiate reality and enhance the world we live in. This consideration, which has strong implications for policymaking, builds the point of departure for the research topic of my thesis. For eliciting how the values of a myriad of stakeholders are interwoven in landscapes which are globally governed, I use a two-fold
approach. I take the concept of multilevel governance as it is used in political science to make sense of actors and their capacity to engage and intervene in landscaping practices. The multi-scalar and multi-actor perspective implied in the multilevel governance framework is conducive to grasp place contestedness in the wake of globalisation dynamics. Having identified the governance structures, I turn to the concept of landscape and scrutinise the values stakeholders hold, assign, and infuse into the landscape. Once conceptualised, I turn theoretical considerations into practice by conducting a case study in the city of Venice, Italy. Due to its cultural endowment, Venice is one of the most famous tourist destinations in the world and consequently displays high levels of place contestedness with actors at all scales engaging in landscaping practices. Apart from yielding a myriad of important insights into power structures and governance mechanisms in Venice as well as each actor’s interests in and aspirations for the city, my conceptual framework has proven conducive as an analytical tool to which policymakers can return when seeking to enhance multi-scalar cooperation and increase place values for all stakeholders.}},
author = {{Hettrich, Christina}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Holding values in place: The governance of place-making in globally embedded cities}},
year = {{2024}},
}