Cultural Landscape and Heritage Sites

Abstract

Concepts of region and place in geography—physical and human-made—are appraised here. UNESCO and World Heritage Sites (WHS) reinforced by the Council of Europe (CoE), EU and other governmental institutions promote heritage and culture as witnessed in their collaborations, including with NGOs. Work on regional geography and cultural landscape has a long tradition. Such research was often closely allied to work in regional and urban planning and especially so after 1945. With the post-modernist revolution as of the 1970s, there developed a more people-centred approach in Geography, especially regarding concepts of power, democratization and use of space ranging from old concepts of the Commons up to public parks and squares and Geoparks. Now with the aid of GIS, geoinformatics, social media devices, ordinary citizens participate in the discovery and creation of spaces. With globalization, concepts and policies promoted by the UN, including their filtering into World Bank and IMF programs, government and grass-root organizations, there is ever-growing awareness of the need for sustainable development as articulated in the UN SDGs that embraces human rights, good governance and citizenship, and prescriptions for not repeating past mistakes. Therefore, places of memory must include not only positive sites of remembrance to be celebrated, but also darker places such as sites of conscience—to serve as a reminder of the inherent dangers. Not only from hazards including technology as exemplified by the Chernobyl nuclear site disaster (1986), but especially political constructs as with extreme nationalism, dictatorial regimes and populism. In challenging negative legacies of the past typified by the World Wars, the EU construction project has been nurtured in Europe since the 1950s.