Landscape is a modality of power in which justice attains different and typically contentious guises. Landscape and justice not only coalesce in presently mediatized struggles such as global environmental degradation, the unequal spatialities of neoliberal violence, or the post-colonial present. They also fuse in the seemingly more pedestrian realities of modern suburbia, dusty historical archives of rural geography, or practical heritage preservation efforts. With its current vigilance to (in)justice, landscape studies hence touch upon profoundly political issues and can deliver important contributions to current debate and struggle within and beyond academia.

During this course, the specific theme of justice will be explored as a part of the broader field of landscape studies. The aim of the course is to provide a methodological and epistemological base for research on landscapes. It will start with an introduction to the history of landscape studies, an overview of current research themes in landscape studies, and as its third part a focus on a specific theme in recent epistemological developments in the field: the interface between landscape and justice.

The course is consists of three parts

1. Short individual assignment before the meeting in Stockholm-Gotland
2. Intensive period Stockholm-Nynäshamn-Gotland (May 18th to 23th)
3. Essay writing June- September– examination in Sept 2010 (internetbased)

The course is convened by

• Tomas Germundsson, Dept of Social and Economic Geography, Lund University
• Elisabeth Gräslund Berg, Dept of Human Geography, Stockholm University
• Tom Mels, Gotland University
• Mats Widgren, Dept of Human Geography, Stockholm University (main contact)