Land-Connectedness: a holistic heritage framework of understanding and care of more-than-human everyday landscapes

There is an increasing consensus of the need to shift human-nature imaginaries as “cultural human-nature relationships in Western societies are both a root cause of current unsustainable patterns of development, and the crux to embarking towards a more sustainable society” (Colding et al., 2020, p3). Critical scholarship has argued that the first step to convivial conservation may be reintegrating nonhumans into our lives to foster a kinship ethic towards the environment (Wolch & Emel, 1998). This paper argues that the first step should also include reintegrating the human into nature in equal measure. 

Rotherham (2017) contends that cultural severance is the ‘most serious threat for nature conservation of 21st century’. A place-based holistic heritage approach that accounts for human and nonhuman entanglements offers a tool to rebuild connectivity with nature and the land.

Building on the concept of 'nature-connectedness' as a driver for care of nature (Martin, et al., 2020), this paper presents Land-Connectedness as a novel term and framework through which to better understand the deep connections we have to the places we live. 

Land-connectedness encompasses all aspects of the land - recognising the intertwining of nature and culture, human and nonhuman through millennia of co-evolution and co-shaping in the landscapes, flora and fauna, language, names, stories, practices and traditions that give each place its unique 'sense of place'.

​Presenting work-in-progress evidence, the doctoral researcher Victoria McMillan's paper will consider the ways this deep connection, or land-connectedness, is made, how it is maintained and strengthened and what implications this has on people's actions towards caring for the places they live and wider climate action. Thus, exploring the affective logics that ground scholarly concepts within everyday experience and the potential for conviviality within lay human-nature ontologies.

The talk will be delivered online via Teams on 27 April 2022, 2-3pm (link to join).

Talking of Heritage: The Past in Conversation

In this presentation, Mike Robinson considers the changing ways in which communities talk about heritage and the differences between authorised discourses of heritage production, maintenance and management and the daily discourses of its consumption, experience and co-creation and the processes of translation, appropriation and adaptation that go on.  As we negotiate superdiverse heritages, ever more complex and contested, the notion of an Authorised Heritage Discourse is becoming ever more fragmented and disconnected. Talking about heritage is an everyday act, blended with everyday talk. For the heritage sector and for the heritage scholar, listening to these daily conversations beyond the focused and precise confines of official heritage sites and how new vocabularies of identity, memory and place are exercised in ordinary spaces and times, is an important and revealing task.  Through a more inductive process of listening to, and engaging with, the ordinary chat of superdiverse communities, we can begin to understand the shifting meanings of heritage and begin to re-think its wider values in policy and practical terms. 

Mike Robinson is Professor of Cultural Heritage, working to develop NTU’s international, cross-disciplinary research portfolio in the cultural heritage field. With over 30 years’ experience of working at the interface between heritage, tourism and culture, Mike’s focus is upon research that makes a difference to communities and businesses across the world. Working across disciplinary boundaries to generate new thinking, he seeks to translate research and examples of best practice to share with the heritage and tourism sectors. He has advised governments, transnational and state organisations, museums and heritage attractions, NGOs and community groups. He has worked on heritage and tourism related projects in over 40 countries.

9 February 2022 14:00 - 15:00 via Teams