Landscape and Resistance. The Transformation of Common Land from Dwelling Landscape to Political Landscape

In this article1 I will discuss how certain acts on the landscape in a context of contest may transform the value and meaning of it. Theoretically, I base the discussion on the view that landscapes are constituted as meaningful entities through events. However, different experiences, interests or agendas make the same landscape evolve with different meanings. Hence, a landscape at a particular time/space intersection may be conceived of as discontinuous or multiple in its appearance. I will show how acts on the landscape that can be understood as appropriation by dwelling become acts of resistance and eventually transformed to a political landscape, partly related to an international rights discourse. As such, the landscape considered may be produced as locally contested with multiple meanings.