Landscape Democracy

Landscape democracy is an emergent aspect of our profession which bridges landscape architecture and human rights. This opens a forum for essential discussion, from the ramifications of the European Landscape Convention to the contestation of public spaces in rapidly urbanizing areas.

In the context of the Cultivating the City: Infrastructures of abundance in urban Brazil, I will be attending the Landscape Democracy doctoral course organized by the University of Copenhagen, the Nordic network on Landscape Democracy and the Landscape Architecture and Spatial Planning Planning Group in the Euroleague University Network.

The course will be taught by Anne Whiston Spirn, Shelley Egoz, and Jørgen Primdahl among others. Please check back here for outcomes of the course.

From The Right to Landscape: Contesting Landscpe and Human Rights edited by Shelley Egoz, Jala Makhzoumi, and Gloria Pungetti:

“While landscape is place, nature and culture specific, the idea transcends nation-state boundaries and as such can be understood as a universal theoretical concept similar to the way in which human rights are perceived. The first step towards the intellectual interface between landscape and human rights is a dynamic and layered understanding of landscape. Accordingly, the ‘Right to Landscape’ is conceived as the place where the expansive definition of landscape, with its tangible and intangible dimensions, overlaps with the rights that support both life and human dignity…”