Diskurse, Institutionen und Governance: Sozialwissenschaftliche Zugänge zum Untersuchungsgegenstand Kulturlandschaft

In recent years cultural landscapes were regarded from new angles. Attention has shifted away from conservation. Cultual landscapes are now often seen as an asset for development of both rural and urban regions. The changing view on cultural landscapes has also consequences for landscape research: What is needed ia a new notion which takes into account that cultural landscapes are socially constructed through individual perception, identification and social interaction. This can be termed a reflexive constructivist concept of cultural landscapes as opposed to descriptive and normative concepts which prevailed for a long time. The article focuses on discourse, governance and institutionalist theories. It discusses what specific kind of insight can be gained by applying any of these theoretic lenses to the issue of cultural landscapes. Finally, the authors explore potential overlaps and interfaces between the three approaches and draw conclusions for both science and policy.