Landscape and critical agency symposium As far back as the 10th century the term 'landscape' referred to the 'collective aspects of the environment', as J.B. Jackson argues in Discovering the Vernacular Landscape (1984). But rather than the scenographic art it later became, landscape design was initially concerned with the production and organisation of agriculture, housing and infrastructure within its surrounding terrain. Today, whilst the 'collective' man-made terrain of the 21st century also encompasses the globalised movements of finance, media and digital technology, our most urgent questions still concern how physical landscapes are produced and organised. As Christian Parenti and others observe, the present environmental and financial crises have escalated conditions of inequality, pollution, scarcity, and precariousness throughout the globe. Seeking to explore the relevance of contemporary thinking about landscape to such issues, this symposium asks the...
