Stories about real and imagined landscapes: the case of Slovenian Istria

This paper presents the cultural landscape as an abstract concept and the result of a complex relationship between the natural environment and human society, and at the same time as a result of comprehension and personal views. A landscape is a story about the people that created it. The theoretical part establishes parallels between a landscape and the stories that this landscape has generated as well as their connection with geographical knowledge. This is followed by stories about real and imagined landscapes from Slovenian Istria, as ascertained through an analysis of extensive material using the ATLAS.ti software and taking into account the principles of grounded theory. This approaches a holistic view of the landscape, or understanding the landscape as a system of material and non-material elements and processes that direct them

Gravel plains in urban areas: gravel pits as an element of degraded landscapes

In the past, the excavation of gravel placed Jarški prod among areas of great opportunity, but this was followed by a major ecological blow: the filling of gravel pits with waste. The area started to regain significance with the construction of a drinking water pumping station and in accordance with the Spatial Plan of the City Municipality of Ljubljana is today seen as a forested area with a pronounced ecological or recreational importance. In spite of suitable legal foundations, as a protected water catch-ment area Jarški prod is in practice still unprotected. Considering the most important natural (shallow groundwater, easily permeable layer of gravel) and social characteristics (location near a densely popu-lated area, irresponsible attitudes), the groundwater is an extremely endangered natural resource

The Franziscean Land Cadastre as a Key to Understanding the 19th-century Cultural Landscape in Slovenia

The aim of the article is to present the use of the Franziscean Cadastre in studying past land use and reconstructing the rural cultural landscape of the 19thcentury. Special attention is devoted to pre-senting the content and accessibility of archival materials. By comparing maps from the Franziscean Cadastre with current land use, we successfully determined the changes, particularly in the rural cultural landscape. A general trend in Slovenia is the selective abandoning of farm land, which has had a great impact on the appearance of the landscape: cultivated fields become meadows, once cultivated areas on less favourable sites are overgrown by forest, and the same occurs with pastures. On the basis of case studies, we estab-lished the great usefulness and value of the Franziscean Cadastre, which still exists for almost the entire territory of today's Slovenia

Pokrajinske predstave o slovenski Istri

A cultural landscape is simultaneously a complex phenomenon and a process~it is a medium and a result of human activities and perception. This monograph is based on a postmodern view of the landscape and it understands the landscape not only as a physical phenomenon, but especially as a social and cultural document. Reading this document discloses the layers of meaning and processes that comprise it. This study examines the understanding and perception of the spatial effects from the history of Slovenian Istria in the twentieth century. It does not deal with direct changes in cultural landscape features, but rather with people’s relationship to them, and so social representation theory is used to represent landscape as a complex phenomenon. The focus is on representations of the landscape and history, such as their appearance in various literary, professional, and scholarly texts. Any literature can be a source for scholarly study and can enable the creation of new geographical knowledge and awareness.Kulturna pokrajina je kompleksen pojav in obenem proces, je medij in rezultat človekove dejavnosti ter njegovega dojemanja. V knjigi prikazujemo dojemanje in zaznavanje prostorskih učinkov posledic zgodovinskih dejstev v slovenski Istri v 20. stoletju. Niso nas zanimale neposredne spremembe sestavin kulturne pokrajine, ampak odnos ljudi do njih, zato smo uporabili teorijo družbenih predstav, s katerimi predstavljamo pokrajino kot kompleksen pojav. V empiričnem delu smo z računalniškim programom ATLAS.ti analizirali 147 besedil s skupno 3344 stranmi. Monografija temelji na postmodernističnem gledanju na pokrajino, v katerem pokrajina ni več samo materialna stvarnost, ampak družbeni in kulturni dokument. Njegovo branje omogoča razkritje pomenskih slojev in procesov, ki ta dokument sestavljajo

Kulturne pokrajine v Sloveniji

Slovenia boasts a great diversity of all natural factors. As a result, many different types of cultural landscape have developed in Slovenia's very small area. The aims of this book are to obtain a comprehensive picture of Slovenia's cultural landscapes~to define and assess their elements, relationships, and the correlations between them~to make an historical survey of landscape shaping~and to delineate and analyze current processes and trends that are changing the rural landscapes faster than ever before. An important part of the book is to classify landscapes at the national level. The classification model is based on a hierarchical concept with eight levels of division. More than 300 variations were defined at the lowest level, and by using a synthesis approach, twenty typological groups were created. Later, nine case studies were analyzed to determine which elements, physical and human, were of vital importance for the examined landscape types. The results show the importance of natural elements, particularly in less favourable areas. Natural elements have direct and indirect impacts on the human elements, but the importance of political and administrative decisions are also significant.Avtorica celostno predstavlja slovenske podeželske kulturne pokrajine: opredeljuje in ovrednoti njihove sestavine, odnose med njimi, sovplivanja in povezave, podaja zgodovinski prikaz oblikovanja kulturnih pokrajin ter opredeljuje in analizira aktualne procese, ki jih spreminjajo mnogo hitreje kot v preteklosti

The Importance of Teachers’ Perception of Space in Education

In addition to environmental problems, spatial pressures are also being exacerbated by increasing economic development, the prosperity of the European population, and the increasing needs of various activities. These can only be mitigated through carefully planned use of space, which demands more active inclusion of the public in addition to relevant services. For successful public inclusion it is important for both individuals and social communities to be aware that space is a limited commodity exposed to increasing social and economic pressure. This kind of awareness demands an informed and educated population that will not only build its attitude towards space based on conceptual knowledge, but also supplement this through perceptual knowledge obtained in education. Active, responsible, and critical citizens can only be cultivated by properly educated, informed, and motivated teachers. These teachers can use new methods to address many existing topics and include new topics to considerably broaden their students’ minds. This is also what this paper seeks to demonstrate. It focuses on the comprehension of space through spatial perception, further development of routine conceptual knowledge through fieldwork, and the possibility of applying selected methods to learning processes. The goal of these efforts will be achieved when individuals and society understand that space is a limited commodity and that the attitude towards it must change as soon as possible if space is to be preserved for future generations in the spirit of sustainable development

Landscape research in Slovenia

Slovenia lies at the junction of the Alps, the Pannonian plain, the Dinaric mountains, and the Mediterranean and underwent Germanic, Romanic, Hungarian, and Slavic cultural influences. For this reason, its landscapes are very diverse. We distinguish four basic landscape types (Alpine, Pannonian, Dinaric, and Mediterranean) and nine landscape subtypes (Alpine mountain, Alpine hill, Alpine plain, Pannonian low hill, Pannonian plain, Dinaric plateau, Dinaric valley, Mediterranean low hill, and Mediterranean plateau). The basic appearance of Slovene landscapes was formed in the period of medieval colonization and later changed only slowly. It is distinguished by its diversity, its incorporation in the natural environment, and high ecological and cultural-emotional value. Economic and social developments in recent decades have triggered rapid changes in the appearance and function of the landscape.Située entre les Alpes, les plaines panoniennes, les chaînes dinariques et la Méditerranée, la Slovénie est dotée d’une grande diversité de paysages. Elle a subi l’influence des cultures germanique, romane, hongroise et slave. La Slovénie est divisée en quatre principaux types de paysages (alpin, panonien, dinarique et méditerranéen) et en neuf sous-types (les montagnes alpines, les collines alpines, la plaine alpine, les basses collines panoniennes, la plaine panonienne, le plateau dinarique, la vallée dinarique, les basses collines méditerranéennes et le plateau méditerranéen). Le paysage slovène s’est formé pendant la période de conquêtes du Moyen-Age et s’est depuis lentement transformé. Ce n’est qu’à partir des années soixante-dix du siècle dernier, avec le développement économique et social, que le paysage et sa structure ont subi des modifications plus rapides et importantes

At the Juncture of Literature and Geography: Literature as a Subject of Geographic Inquiry in the Case of Slovene Istria

Literarna dela kot diskurzivna artikulacija bivanjskega izkustva življenjskega prostora postajajo legitimen predmet geografskega preučevanja. Postmoderna geografija si je za svoje potrebe prilagodila tudi nekatere koncepcije literarne vede, kot so intertekstualnost, pokrajina kot besedilo ali geografsko zamišljanje. Kvalitativna analiza izbranih primerov literarnih besedil, ki tematizirajo prostor slovenske Istre, pokaže, kako se v njih oblikujejo topofilija, identitetna razlika jaz/drugi ter občutja kraja in brez krajevnosti. Gre za sodobne pojme humanistične geografije, ki pretežno objektivistično, naravoslovno-družboslovno tradicijo stroke nadgrajujejo z upoštevanjem posameznikovega in skupnostnega dojemanja, zamišljanja in oblikovanja prostora. Literarna dela geografiji omogočajo preučevanje našega odnosa do življenjskega okolja in pomenov, ki jih prostoru pripisujemo ali pa se z njimi identificiramo. Naša razmerja do prostora so tudi temeljni pogoj za oblikovanje identitet in družbene odgovornosti

Na stičišču literature in geografije: Literatura kot predmet geografskega preučevanja na primeru Slovenske Istre

Literarna dela kot diskurzivna artikulacija bivanjskega izkustva življenjskega prostora postajajo legitimen predmet geografskega preučevanja. Postmoderna geografija si je za svoje potrebe prilagodila tudi nekatere koncepcije literarne vede, kot so intertekstualnost, pokrajina kot besedilo ali geografsko zamišljanje. Kvalitativna analiza izbranih primerov literarnih besedil, ki tematizirajo prostor slovenske Istre, pokaže, kako se v njih oblikujejo topofilija, identitetna razlika jaz/drugi ter občutja kraja in brez krajevnosti. Gre za sodobne pojme humanistične geografije, ki pretežno objektivistično, naravoslovno-družboslovno tradicijo stroke nadgrajujejo z upoštevanjem posameznikovega in skupnostnega dojemanja, zamišljanja in oblikovanja prostora. Literarna dela geografiji omogočajo preučevanje našega odnosa do življenjskega okolja in pomenov, ki jih prostoru pripisujemo ali pa se z njimi identificiramo. Naša razmerja do prostora so tudi temeljni pogoj za oblikovanje identitet in družbene odgovornosti