Abstract

This book takes issue with the ‘idealist’ approach in which land and landscape are read as purely expressive and ultimately poetic.

The authors argue that too much emphasis on the subjective construction of land obscures the fundamentally meaningful sense in which land is also used and appropriated: while land may have some subjective, ideological meaning, it exists, also, as a practical resource.

The essays focus on postcolonial legacies in land law, contemporary disputes and land claims surrounding ancestral lands, conservation issues and road protests. Areas covered include Western and Eastern Europe, West Africa, the Caribbean, Australia and the Pacific, India and Indonesia.
'...By stressing both the cultural and economic significance of land this book succeeds in mirroring the complexities surrounding the control of land and how its use is defined'
Environmental Politics
'Anyone who reads this collection will be impressed not only by its breadth of coverage, but also by the interesting social and cultural practices it reveals'
James G Carrier, JRAI