Heritage and the Energy Transition: The case of European Islands

by Azadeh Arjomand Kermani

Europe’s energy transition is driven by political agendas that work out in different ways on a regional level.This drive has proved to have a great impact on our relationship with our living environment and its heritage values. How can heritage discourse and studies shed light to these challenges? And what role can heritage and landscape values play in global challenges?

Tinos: View of the Cardiani settlement in Tinos island. Locals and heritage experts warn against the planned installation of wind power infrastructure in this small-scale, layered landscape. Credit: Marilena Mela

Renewable energy is produced using renewable natural resources such as sunlight, wind, water resources (rivers, tides and waves), geothermal heat or biomass. Unlike fossil fuels, these sources are constantly being replenished and can, therefore, in theory never be depleted. In addition, its energy conversion process doesn’t produce carbon emissions which will help achieve European energy and climate objectives. Last but not least, generating clean energy will reduce Europe’s dependency on imported fossil fuels, helping to make energy more affordable. On the other hand, landscape and heritage values of these localities are influenced immensely by energy transition initiatives and in some cases local communities are struggling with the consequences.

Continue reading “Heritage and the Energy Transition: The case of European Islands”

CFP: Planning for Sea Spaces: Processes, Practices and Future Perspectives

Special Issue of Planning Practice and Research 

Guest Editors: Franziska Sielker1, Glen Smith2 & Cormac Walsh3

 1Cambridge University, UK, 2University College Cork, Ireland, 3Hamburg University, Germany

 **Submission deadlines: Abstracts must be submitted by April 30th 2020. Full papers are required by October 30th 2020**

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image source: European Commission

Continue reading “CFP: Planning for Sea Spaces: Processes, Practices and Future Perspectives”

Who Rules the Waves?

by Epifania Akosua Amoo-Adare

 

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Canoe boats in Elmina, photo taken by E. Amoo-Adare

“The future is not good at all” – Papa Panyin

I want to share a little of what has been proving to be rather troubled reflections on the contemporary making of ‘modern’ Ghana. Now, what I wish to share here is mostly based on a bunch of hunches rather than some reliable evidence that can be validated and/or replicated through method. In fact, it is really about a series of questions, which have come to plague my conscience of late; namely one, which is: Who rules the waves?

By this, I first wish to use the term “waves” metaphorically to think about who governs the groundswell of ideological, political, sociocultural, intellectual, economic and so on, sprays of Ghana’s passage into a rather nationalistic (and perhaps too bi-partisan) future; one which is also based on certain westernized path-dependencies that entangle us within what Anibal Quijano calls a “colonial matrix of power” [1]—with its racist/sexist linear, hierarchical and competitive ideas of knowledge, growth and developmental progress.

I want us to think of this question of waves, not only in this sense, but also in the embodied watery sense of Ghana’s oceanscape – which I will use as a cautionary tale for speaking about the multitude of uneven developments and social inequalities that are arising in the modernizing of this nation state.

Additionally, for the avid knowledge producers among us, I want us to also think of waves at the quantum level, where we now know that the (scientific) observation of sub-atomic particles tends to fix their infinite wavelike possibilities (forms of becoming) into static particles (states of being). [2] And, this thus, should make us further contemplate on what it means for us all, as we actively observe phenomenal interactions in this world. Most often, we do so with certain fixed (disciplinary) lenses, perspectives, views and standpoints about what is life, progress and/or development; thereby, perhaps also contributing to the reinforcement and reification of the very phenomena that we seek to change through our study of it.

Basically, I want to share a particular sense of unease that I currently hold about contemporary Ghana (in all its Africa-rising-glow) and its accumulating “(post)modernity”, as Ghana now is a country that is epitomized by ongoing rapid urbanization alongside a fast shapeshifting socioeconomic landscape, which is egged on by technology, migration and the mobility of goods, services, capital and ideas. I do this by providing a critical—albeit rather superficial—reading on the particular “politics of space” that is being played out along Ghana’s coastline; in particular, outlining key concerns within its marine landscape in which apofo(artisanal fisher folk), the fish-mothers who sponsor them, and the local fishmongers who rely on their catch, are all entangled (and some might even say entrapped) within a dynamic figuration of “winners and losers”.

I offer these current—albeit conceptual, and in many instances anecdotal—observations on what is one very small aspect of Ghana’s fast moving tidal wave of modernity, through a prism of many other socio-spatial insights I have gained about the worldwide deluge of uneven development and social inequality that appears in the wake of many similar neo-colonial modernity projects. These are insights gleaned through over thirty years of living in and traveling to various settings around the globe (on five out of seven continents to be exact).

Long story short, I also wish to imbue the humble insights that I am about to share with a gravitas that is embedded in a feminist standpoint; that is one, which looks to emotion, intuition, dreams, and personal experience (alongside scientific method) as part of the experiential ground from which theoretical understandings can be made of rather dire material circumstances.

So now finally, let me tell you the essence of what plagues me.

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Fish drying in Cape Coast, photo by E. Amoo-Adare

There is currently a belief among various fishing communities that Ghana is succumbing to a chinalization of its waters; whereby Ghanaian elites (especially politicians) are said to facilitate the invasion of the Chinese into Ghana’s fishing industry. It is said that in many instances, the Chinese own the fishing trawler vessels; however, they require the inputs of locals in order to acquire the licenses (thus flags). And that this is easy enough in a context in which it is claimed that one can easily buy a license without meeting many of the requirements.

Some argue that China is solely engaged in fishing, and other businesses, on the African continent to ensure employment for its citizens through the exclusionary types of agreements it sets up with African countries. In Ghana, for example, it is alleged that about 40% of the crew on the fishing trawlers at sea are Chinese. And yet these Chinese trawlers are said to only provide a small percentage of their catch to Ghanaian fish-mothers and fishmongers for local consumption. In addition, the little they provide is believed not to be their best catch, for that is instead reserved for sale in international markets. In other words, apofoare expected to be the main providers of fish for local consumption, taking responsibility for about 80% of market supply.

Besides legitimate Chinese engagement in the Ghanaian fishing industry, there is talk of lights that can sometimes be seen dotted across the ocean at dawn—what is sardonically referred to as the “Chinese Christmas Tree”. These lights are said to be the product of illegal fishing trawlers that avoid the waters when naval patrols do their rounds, only to return when they are gone. These illicit Chinese trawlers are accused of often encroaching in the waters reserved for apofo. They are also said to be the driving force behind a key national challenge called Saiko,[3] which is a term used in Ghana to refer to the “transhipment” of fish, from industrial trawlers to local canoes, at sea. In 2017, there was said to be 100,000 tons of Saiko fish in the system; thus, Saiko is a practice that is repeatedly blamed for the rapid decline of the local fishing industry.

According to local officials, Saiko brings with it an illicit environment that goes beyond illegal acquisition of fish, into that of arms and drug dealing. It is said that the fishing practices of these Chinese trawlers has resulted in the ruination of the coral reef, which consequently deprives fish of places to feed. These illicit trawlers are also accused of the use of illegal net sizes that result in the capture of small fish that they then toss, dead, back into the ocean.

The above practices reduce the amount of fish available for apofo, which then creates a desperate environment in which they engage in unacceptable fishing methods such as the use of dynamite, carbide and chemicals (e.g., DDT). The diminishing number of fish in the ocean, most likely accounts for the increased importation of fish into Ghana –especially after the end of the fishing season– from locations such as Mauritania, Morocco, Denmark and Spain.

The above vicious cycle is said to also be responsible for an increase in fish prices, alongside the decline of fish stock; thus, it is the reason why many apofoare said to be falling into debt, ill health, and depression. Additionally, apofosay that due to declining fish stock, they are forced to change their professions with some resorting to work as drivers, mechanics, truck pushers, or else to engage in seaweed collection. Others have had to migrate to far off locations such as Senegal and Gambia, where they are better able to work as fisher folk.

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A canoe boat for sale in Elmina, photo taken by E. Amoo-Adare

Consequently, apofodo not encourage any of their descendants to get involved in an industry that is seen to be corrupted and fast disappearing. And although there are avenues for voicing these concerns, e.g., the National Fishing Association, The Fishermen’s Council, and even the Fishers and Fishmonger Association, apofospeak of having been rendered silent—especially because the sector is also one in which Ghana’s burgeoning bipartisan politics are constantly used to pit Peter against Paul. This results in a growing sentiment amongst fisher folk, described as the “government does not value us at all”.

Much of what is going on along Ghana’s shores, however, is not lost to authority figures, such as the Ghana Maritime Authority (GMA), which is very interested in carrying out its duties [4] to the best of its abilities. This they try to do across a vast territory, to be surveilled with limited resources. Their work includes certain policies and procedures used to keep track of the various actors on the ocean. For example, the Ghana Shipping Act (2003), which requires the certification of ships—so as to ensure their seaworthiness. There are also efforts to maintain security on the ocean, through the installation and operation of a Vessel Traffic Management Information System (VTMIS) for 24-hour electronic surveillance and monitoring of Ghana’s coastline; theprovision of International Ship and Port Facility Security(ISPS) Codes; plus a keen determination to police Ghana’s shores in order to prevent illegal fishing and other problematic activities. GMA is also in the process of increasing their coastline patrol service, through the use of satellite feeds, patrol boats and even possibly drones, to augment what is viewed as the limited security efforts supplied by the police forces.

Additionally, in 2018 through the Ministry for Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, the Ghana government announced a ban [5] on fishing during the month of August. The announcement included a music video by the Fante rap master Kofi Kinaata. [6] More specifically, the minister—Hon. Elizabeth Naa Afoley Quaye—spoke of how over two decades, the fisheries sector has been in massive decline and is perhaps even heading toward a total collapse. This being due to a crisis of overcapacity and overfishing of all stocks, which is further exacerbated by the various illegal fishing practices. The ban was intended to serve as a response to years of overfishing, which have resulted in dwindling fish stock; thus, the idea is to create the space for fish—in particular the small pelagics (keta school boys, sardinella and mackerel)—to spawn during that time.

The government’s announcement of the ban was met with much frustration, by apofo, especially as it did not at that time apply to tuna fleets. This was based on the assumption that they operate in the deep sea with their large trawler boats. For the apofo, however, the concern was very much about how the ban would negatively impact their livelihood[7] and, thus, they also asked for it to be postponed for a year. As a result, the ban was to be rolled out for artisanal fishers from about 15 May to 15 June 2019,[8] and also too for industrial trawlers from 1 August to 30 September.

This process of futuring the ocean, thus, its industries (e.g., fishing and even crude oil production), is one in which apofo—and by association their fish-mothers and fishmongers—are being subjected to mainstream narrations and enactments of Ghana’s increasing modernity, which does not always serve the immediate needs of ordinary people.

Working toward a deep interrogation of these kinds of scenarios, means asking significant questions such as: Who rules the waves of Ghana’s modernity project in aquaculture?

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The making of fishing nets in Elmina, photo taken by E. Amoo-Adare

And answering this question is tantamount to also understanding who directs the (national) waves of a modern Ghanaian future; i.e., one in which there are several ‘strange’ bedfellows—accrued from across borders—and thus, coming to agreements that do not necessarily include several of the country’s own citizens – especially those who do not fit neatly into ideologies about commercial practice, urban waterfront development and, very specifically, neoliberal economic progress.

The unease that I spoke of earlier, is associated to my sense that presently Ghana appears to have become some kind of “virgin territory” in which a “neo-colonial gold rush” unfolds; [9] one where its postcolonial ports—as well as other urbanized locations—become the prospecting playgrounds for many an enterprising individual and/or organizational entity (here, I also include returnees like myself into the mix).

More importantly, since the neoliberal world of capital accumulation has run out of (both perceived and real) growth landscapes in the Global North, its neo-colonial networks are speedily settling into key ‘safe to operate’ locations in the Global South – where it can acquire multiple geopolitical mediums of choice for activating and enabling new, emerging markets, replete with the allure of billions of up-and-coming consumers.

So we find that in a postcolonial capital city like Accra, for example, the government, civil society, the private sector, and everyday citizens—alongside an array of international organizations and other sundry actors—engage in multiple (planned, speculative and unintended) interactions in order to catapult the larger body politic, and themselves, into a global marketplace; one which is characterized by competition and a rather uneven distribution of capital, goods, technology, knowledge and other resources.

In such a “free for all” terrain, many like our apofo find themselves in the unpredictable throes of rapid change that paradoxically feels slow (or even stagnated) to those who are also negotiating the hardship of everyday hustles to do with a basic lack of reliable services, inadequate infrastructure, limited daily resource acquisition, and a system plagued by political and everyday corruption.

The kind of prospective context that I speak of is also a mutating and fragmented landscape, within which stratified populations often go about their daily business in parallel, without any regard for each other’s circles of influence. It is a place where many a person gets left behind, while the lucky few—with substantial social and cultural capital, both local and global—easily negotiate burgeoning economies focused on consumptive lifestyles.

So therefore, in Accra (again as an example), we find that a substantial few now sip champagne, as a weekend pastime, while they (mysteriously) make and bank million-dollar deals within an economic landscape in which the average white-collar worker works hard to earn just about GHS800 ($145) per month, while those who are more hard-done-by, struggle to make even GHS5 ($1) for a whole day’s labor—under what is very much a blistering sun.

I would say that it is time to start questioning the very idea of our development, especially if it’s to be epitomized by the onslaught of highly commercialized existences that operate within the false, exclusionary and imaginary concept of the “nation-state”. The key question must be: What are the alternatives? Who is responsible for ensuring that all of our needs are equally recognized and met in this ruthless business called progress? And ultimately, who is to ensure that the future for everyone becomes much better than it’s not good at all?

Epifania Amoo-Adare is an independent scholar interested in (un)thinking science through art and other radical approaches.

 

References

[1]Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decoloniality

[2]Article https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/10/quantum-experiment-space-confirms-reality-what-you-make-it-0

[3]Video by EJF on Saiko https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc3-1vj6QPw

[4]Some GMA services https://www.ghanamaritime.org/services_page.php?id=30

[5]Watch video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUfjRq-sbGM

[6]Watch video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwM9JDLss0U

[7]Newslink https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/business/No-fishing-in-August-Government-declares-669113

[8]Newslink https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/business/Government-announces-closed-fishing-season-737398#

[9]Article: https://www.academia.edu/36947771/The_Neo-Colonial_Gold_Rush_and_a_Call_for_Decolonial_Options

The Frayed Atlantic Edge by David Gange: Rewriting Histories and Geographies of the Coast

by Cormac Walsh

In ‘The Frayed Atlantic Edge’ (William Collins, July 2019) historian and experienced sea-kayaker David Gange recounts his journey along the Atlantic coasts of Britain and Ireland, from Shetland to the Channel. In travelling by kayak, Gange immersed himself in the rhythms of the sea and coast and sought to gain new perspectives on the history and geographies of Britain and Ireland, from the perspective of the sea. Drawing on archival and literary sources, he weaves together an account of these Atlantic coasts which challenges head-on dominant narratives of the peripherality and marginality of coastal and island places. He begins with the conviction that British and Irish histories ‘are usually written inside out’, based on the false premise that the ‘land-bound geographies’ of today have existed forever (p. ix).

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Image source: https://frayedatlanticedge.wordpress.com.

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Microplastics by other means? How microplastics can be a tool for inter/trans-disciplinary engagement

by Sarah Schönbauer & Sven Bergmann

Although there is more and more data about plastic particles in the environment, the impact of microplastic particles on the ecosystem, wildlife and the human body is still unexplored. However, the potential effect of such particles has become a core concern in our contemporary societies, tangible in the far-reaching media coverage or in scientific conferences specifically devoted to engage with microplastics.

In one of such conferences, the Micro2018 in Lanzarote (1) Richard Thompson, professor of biological and marine sciences at the University of Plymouth and the eponym of the term microplastics, gave a keynote. He claimed that besides the unquestionably important role of the natural sciences, the social sciences too should play an important role in future research on plastic particles in the environment. He encouraged social scientists to take part in conferences such as the Micro2018, and stated that this involvement would be beneficial for the overall engagement with microplastics. While we, two scholars in the social and cultural sciences, specifically in the field of cultural anthropology and Science and Technology Studies (STS), think that this is an important claim indeed, we also think that a closer involvement needs to be specified.

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Microplastics from Lanzarote © Sarah Schönbauer

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CFP and Registration: Spatial Strategies at the Land-Sea Interface: Rethinking Maritime Spatial Planning, Sept 2019

 

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CALL FOR PAPERS

Spatial Strategies at the Land-Sea Interface: Rethinking Maritime Spatial Planning

11-13th September 2019, University of Hamburg, Institute for Geography

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 15th July 2019

Under the EU Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) Directive adopted in 2014, Member States are tasked with the preparation of maritime spatial plans by 2021. These plans are required to ‘take into account land-sea interactions’ and ‘should aim to integrate the maritime dimension of some coastal uses or activities and their impacts’ (EU 2014, 138). Accordingly, inshore territorial waters must be included within either marine spatial plans or land-based spatial plans where they extend beyond the coastline (EU 2014, 140, Article 2:1). Contemporary and future challenges of climate change adaptation, coastal erosion and sea-level rise underline the need for visionary and inclusive spatial strategies at the coast (O’ Riordan et al 2014, Walsh 2019).

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Workshop Announcement: Spatial Strategies at the Land-Sea Interface: Rethinking Maritime Spatial Planning

University of Hamburg: 11-13th September 2019

Under the EU Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) Directive, Member States are tasked with the preparation of maritime spatial plans by 2021. These plans are required to take account of land-sea interactions. Experience to date, however, indicates that MSP occupies a different institutional and policy space to land-based terrestrial spatial planning. At the same time as MSP is becoming established as a formal policy instrument applied in a coordinated manner across Europe, European spatial planning has reached an impasse, with a discernible shift away from ambitious spatial strategies over the last two decades. Furthermore, as policies and practices of integrated coastal zone management are displaced through a focus of attention on MSP, there is a risk of a new coastal squeeze where the land and marine become institutionalised as distinct policy spaces. This interdisciplinary workshop aims to explore and critically reflect on the capacity for MSP and spatial planning more broadly to address the challenges posed by the sustainable governance of the land-sea interface. In particular, we will focus on the spatial dimensions of MSP and spatial planning at the coast. Key topics for discussion and reflection include the capacity of MSP to work with relational connections across space and the potential to engage with place-based knowledges and multiple ways of knowing the sea.

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The workshop will include a mix of keynote presentations, interactive break-out sessions and a limited number of research papers solicited through an open call for papers (to be announced shortly).

The workshop will be run jointly under the auspices of the: 1) Marine Spatial Planning Research Network (MSPRN), and

2) AESOP (Association of European Schools of Planning) Thematic Group on Transboundary Spaces, Policy Diffusion, Planning Cultures)

The workshop is hosted by the University of Hamburg, Institute for Geography

Lead Organiser: Dr. Cormac Walsh, cormac.walsh(at)uni- hamburg.de

Confirmed keynote speakers include Prof. Simin Davoudi (Newcastle University, UK) and Claudia Bode (THING Collective)

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Call for Papers: MARE People and the Sea Conference Panel: Beyond Nature and Culture at the Wadden Sea

by Cormac Walsh & Martin Döring

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Sunrise on Schiermonnikoog, Dutch Wadden Sea. (Photo C. Walsh)

Proposed Panel Title: Beyond Nature and Culture: Relational perspectives on the Wadden Sea landscape

 Panel Convenors: Dr. Cormac Walsh & Dr. Martin Döring (University of Hamburg)

The Wadden Sea constitutes a dynamic intertidal coastal landscape, reaching from Den Helder in the Netherlands, along the German North Sea coast to Blavands Huk in southwestern Denmark. This coastal landscape has been shaped over a period of a thousand years or more by dyke-building, land reclamation and drainage practices as well as periodic storm flood events producing a material and symbolically powerful boundary between the land and the sea. Today the intertidal landscape in front of the dykes is recognised as a unique, ecologically rich and diverse ecosystem of outstanding natural value with the status of a UNESCO World Heritage site. The Wadden Sea landscape nevertheless remains a contested landscape imbued with regionally specific cultural values and meanings which serve to challenge the conservationist myth of the Wadden Sea as pure and pristine nature. Against this background, this panel proposes to bring together relational perspectives which seek to transcend the nature-culture divide at the Wadden Sea and offer novel ways of thinking nature and culture together.

In particular we hope to examine and critically reflect on the following aspects:

  • The interrelationships between natural and cultural heritage at the Wadden Sea;
  • innovative approaches to transcending the ‘hard boundary’ of nature and culture in the Wadden Sea landscape;
  • cross-comparative perspectives on the cultural meanings of nature and landscape at the Dutch, German and Danish Wadden Sea coasts;
  • possible Wadden Sea futures drawing on its rich history of nature-culture interactions;
  • challenges of bringing together multiple ways of knowing the Wadden Sea landscape.

 Please submit a title and abstract (max 300 words) to cormac.walsh(at)uni-hamburg.de and doering(at)metaphorik.de by 20th December 2018.

 

Suggested readings / Key References:

    1. Döring, M. & Ratter, B. (2018). Coastal landscapes: The relevance of researching coastscapes for managing coastal change in North FrisiaArea 50, 169-176.
    2. Egberts, L. (2018). Moving Beyond the Hard Boundary: Overcoming the nature-culture divide in the Dutch Wadden Sea area, Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development.
    3. Egberts, L. & Schroor, M. (Eds) (2018). Waddenland Outstanding: History, Landscape and Cultural Heritage of the Wadden Sea Region, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
    4. Krauss, W., (2005). The natural and cultural landscape heritage of Northern Friesland. Int. J. Herit. Stud. 11, 39–52.
    5. Reise, K., 2014. A Natural History of the Wadden Sea: Riddled by Contingencies, Wilhelmshaven Common Wadden Sea Secretariat.
    6. Walsh, C. (2018). Metageographies of coastal management: negotiating spaces of nature and culture at the Wadden Sea. Area 50 (2), 177-185.
    7. Wöbse, A.-K., (2017). Space, Place, Land and Sea: The Ecological ‘Discovery’ of the Global Wadden Sea. In: de Bont, R., Lachmund, L. (Eds.), Spatialiszing the History of Ecology: Sites, Journeys, Mappings. Routledge, London/New York, pp. 204–222.

 

Dyke History and Dyke Research in Northern Germany: A Conference Report

by Cormac Walsh

On 19th October 2009, an interdisciplinary conference on dyke history and dyke research took place in Stade, a small town in the Elbe marshlands, to the northwest of Hamburg. The conference was organised by the landscape association of the former duchies of Bremen and Werden (Landschaftsverband der ehemaligen Herzogtümer Bremen und Verden e.V.). Over a period of eighteen years the landscape association had commissioned a detailed historical study of the dykes of the Elbe and Weser river landscapes which has been published between 2003 an 2008 in the eight volumes by historians Michael Erhardt and Norbert Fischer.

The front cover of the most recent book of the series “Geschichte der Deiche an Elbe und Weser” (Source: Landschaftsverband Stade). 

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The landscape is a Rubik’s cube and climate change is a rip current – How local landscape narratives influence adaptation to coastal erosion in Cornwall (UK)

by Vera Köpsel

In the autumn of 2015, my interviewee John* and I were standing on a rise at the Atlantic coast of Cornwall (UK) and facing the stormy weather. Storms are common in Cornwall, yet the high frequency of extreme events has begun irritating the locals. John yelled over the crashing waves, “Do you see the steps over there? They used to lead down to the beach, but they were washed away by the waves. Now there are only fifty centimeters to the cliff edge. Not long and the access road will erode into the sea.”

Eroded beach access, Godrevy, Cornwall. (C) Vera Köpsel

Continue reading “The landscape is a Rubik’s cube and climate change is a rip current – How local landscape narratives influence adaptation to coastal erosion in Cornwall (UK)”