4 research outputs found
Recommended from our members
Valuing Arts and Arts Research
Arts have a significant impact on the way we understand the world. It is widely accepted that arts are able to inspire people and direct attention to things that really matter; they help not only to understand how the material world affects us, but also to acknowledge the importance of these influences on our wellbeing. Moreover, through the process of creative engagement, individual reflections can become shared cultural experiences and vice versa. Where the social and natural sciences produce verifiable evidence based on data, the arts and artists can create singular perspectives that have wide resonance. While any great work of art increases our understanding of the world, not all arts processes lend themselves to research collaborations, particularly with other disciplines
Using a multi-lens framework for landscape decisions
1. Landscape decisions are multi-faceted. Framing landscape decision-making as a governance process that requires a collective approach can encourage key stakeholders to come together to co-inform a discussion about their priorities and what constitutes good governance, leading to more holistic landscape decisions. 2. In this paper, we recognise that a suite of complementary and multi-dimensional approaches are in practice used to inform and evaluate land use decisions. We have called these approaches ‘lenses’ because they each provide a different perspective on the same problem. The four lenses are: i) Power and Market Gain, ii) Ecosystem Services, iii), Place based Identity and iv) Ecocentric. Each brings a different set of evidence and viewpoints (narrative, qualitative and experiential, as well as quantitative metrics such as monetary) to the decision-making process and can potentially reveal problems and solutions that others do not. 3. Considering all lenses together allows dialogue to take place which can reveal the true complexities of landscape decision-making and can facilitate more effective and more holistic decisions. Employing the lenses requires governance structures that give equal weight to all lenses, enable dialogue and coexistence between top down and bottom up approaches, and permit adaptation to local and granular place specifics rather than developing “one-size-fits-all” solutions. 4. We propose that formalising the process of balancing all the lenses requires public participation, and that a lens approach should be used to support landscape decisions alongside a checklist that facilitates transparency in the conversation, showing how all evidence has been considered and critically assessed
Recommended from our members
Valuing Arts and Arts Research
Arts have a significant impact on the way we understand the world. It is widely accepted that arts are able to inspire people and direct attention to things that really matter; they help not only to understand how the material world affects us, but also to acknowledge the importance of these influences on our wellbeing. Moreover, through the process of creative engagement, individual reflections can become shared cultural experiences and vice versa. Where the social and natural sciences produce verifiable evidence based on data, the arts and artists can create singular perspectives that have wide resonance. Recent decades have witnessed the emergence of an arts research paradigm that ‘uses the arts, in the broadest sense, to explore, understand and represent human action and experience’. There is, in particular, an increasing number of creative practitioners responding to issues related to environmental change. This report aims to clarify the role of artists and arts research in landscape and environmental research today