Landscape as a Scaling Strategy in Territorial Development

Abstract

This article analyses how the established but still elusive concept of ‘landscape’ may strengthen territorial development processes in the face of complexity. In times of the Anthropocene, landscapes are best treated as spaces for experiential and relational being, rather than pure social constructs or rationalised physical objects. Using basic tenets of social-ecological and social-technical systems thinking, this article tests the hypothesis that landscape, considered as a socio-technical innovation, can be harnessed in territorial development as a scaling device to achieve resilient and adaptive territories. This approach opens the perspective that the transition towards landscape-territorial development and planning can proceed in three phases. Each phase reflects a society with different degrees of awareness of the landscape. The article reflects on ways to operationalise the proposed landscape-territorial approach. It is concluded that, rather than in calls for global landscape governance, it is ultimately in reconfigured place—that is, landscapes reclaimed, developed, protected, as the local actors require it—that new spheres of control and influence over the landscape emerge.