Foraging for identity: the relationships between landscape activities and landscape identity after catastrophic landscape change

Abstract

In this article, we deal with landscape activities in relation to changing landscape identity after a major wildfire in Sweden in 2014. The aim was to investigate the relationships between 22 landscape activities (before the fire) and 2 components (emotion and cognition) of landscape identity (before and after the fire). A total of 656 respondents living nearby the fire area participated in this study. Before the fire, a positive association was found between the activities of enjoying nature and foraging, and both components of landscape identity. This suggests that the more participants enjoyed nature and picked berries and mushrooms, the stronger their attachment to the landscape (emotion), and the more they remembered and reasoned about the landscape (cognition). Post fire, these relationships were found only between the two components of landscape identity and foraging. This implies a significant role of this type of activity for keeping 'alive' landscape identity.

Relationships Between Identity, Well-Being, and Willingness to Sacrifice in Personal and Collective Favorite Places: The Mediating Role of Well-Being

“…Humans bond with physical sites involving psychological, social, historical, cultural, and health dimensions (Knez, 2005;Lewicka, 2008;Lachowycz and Jones, 2013;Butler et al, 2019). These ties act as reminders of significant collective and personal encounters (Knez, 2006;Lewicka, 2008;Wang, 2008;Taylor, 2010;Wheeler, 2014) involving emotional, cognitive, and behavioral operations in how we perceive ourselves as individuals and collectives (Canter, 1997;Casey, 2000;Knez and Thorsson, 2006;Knez, 2014).…”

“…The psychological phenomenon of place-related identity also includes information about the surrounding nature (Knez, 2005(Knez, , 2006Knez and Eliasson, 2017;Butler et al, 2019), which has been reported to be associated with: (1) Curative feelings of wellbeing (Korpela, 1989(Korpela, , 1992Korpela and Hartig, 1996;Knez, 2006) for both personal and collective favorite places (Knez and Eliasson, 2017); and (2) Emotional loss of a beloved site after a natural disaster (Knez et al, 2018a;Butler et al, 2019).…”

“…They provide experiences shared across generations, as well as settings for communal interactions important to cultural ties" (Daniel et al, 2012, p. 8814). Consequently, natural and cultural attributes and features of a physical site are central to the self, identity and memory (Knez, 2005(Knez, , 2006Lowenthal, 2005;Aplin, 2007;Erll, 2011;Butler et al, 2019).…”

“…In view of this, empirical studies of relationships between nature and human well-being have reported many different types of associations, involving feelings of solitude, aesthetic values, sense of timelessness, positive affect, and stress reduction (e.g., Laski, 1961;Williams and Harvey, 2001;Park et al, 2011;Russell, 2012;Hedblom et al, 2019). This research comprised measures of social, psychological, and physiological variables (Abraham et al, 2010;Bowler et al, 2010;Hartig et al, 2011;Carrus et al, 2015;Sandifer et al, 2015) including both rural (e.g., Knez and Eliasson, 2017;Knez et al, 2018a;Butler et al, 2019) and urban (e.g., Carrus et al, 2015;Gunnarsson et al, 2016;Ode Sang et al, 2016;Hedblom et al, 2017;Panno et al, 2017;Knez et al, 2018b;Hedblom et al, 2019) types of greenery.…”

Rapid ecological response and intensified knowledge accumulation following a north European mega-fire

“…Lidskog and Sjödin 2016; Johansson and Bäck 2017), media coverage (Berglez and Lidskog 2017;Johansson and Odén 2018), and perception of change in landscape identity (Butler et al 2018(Butler et al , 2019Knez et al 2018). One methodological ecology-oriented paper using data from the fire area is available (Bohlin et al 2017) but otherwise natural science papers so far are very few (but see Żmihorski et al in press).…”