Landscape perception of abandoned areas and spontaneous afforestation of agricultural land

Abstract

When analysing the environment, the term "representation" is more open than "perception", often used when describing new environmental questions. Apart from purely semantic considerations, the analysis and determination of the social representations of land left fallow and the spontaneous reforestation of agricultural land supposes identification of the model which structures this representation and forms its core. Landscapes resulting from fallow land have often been considered to reflect the poverty and misery of the population. On the other hand, a beautiful landscape, worthy of a modern nation, was cultivated and cared for, bearing as it were, the mark of the ceaseless toil of labouring peasants. These representations have evolved in the course of time. As the antithesis of "ordinary space" where nature is less and less present and replaced by technology, we can imagine space left untouched by social activities and the marks of technology gradually acquiring a new value, that of wild beauty. A way of answering the questions posed would thus be precisely to introduce nature into these "ordinary spaces". But this would require solving the problems of the relationship between society and its ways of considering these spaces and the reality of nature.