Umwelt und Region / Ambiente e regione
Curators
Abstract
Environment and Region
This issue is concerned with the topic of the environment and the region, focusing on the reciprocal relationship between these two categories. It investigates how natural environments have shaped and constituted specific regions and, in turn, how geographical spaces have brought forth specific kinds of environment, in which social practices, conflicts and economic exchanges assume a fundamental importance. Both chronologically and geographically, the eight articles cover a broad spectrum of themes, ranging from the use of forests, the cultivation of wooded areas and the timber trade to the transformation of heath and moorland areas. In doing so, particular attention is paid to conflicts between local populations and external officials. The various contributions indicate how changes in property relations, administrative structures and local knowledge influenced the use of the environment and the formation of regions. Moreover, they show how local occurrences are interwoven with supra-regional processes and even with the dynamics of global change.
An interdisciplinary approach that combines methods from environmental and regional history reveals new insights into the ways in which human and non-human actors contribute to the development of landscapes, eco-systems and social and natural connections. Whether from medieval forests to modern crop-growing, or from local conflicts to supra-regional environmental politics – all these articles make clear how much innovative potential lies within environmental history for understanding the development of regions and their history.
