Visions of Nature

`Visions of nature' are the ideas that people hold of what nature is and how we should relate to it. These visions - besides being a dynamic cultural phenomenon worthy of scientific study for its own sake - are important for the design of democratically grounded landscape and nature policies.

Drawing from a wide range of disciplines from the social sciences, the humanities and ecology, this volume reports on the growing scientific insights in visions of nature in Europe. Aspects covered are the long term dynamics of relationships between people and nature connected to land-use and urbanisation, landscape preferences related to views on nature, the structure and distribution of images such as stewardship of nature, partnership with nature and `deep ecology' views, visions of nature as elicited in discussions with groups of adults and children, the role of emotional affinity to nature and of sudden disastrous events such as a river flood, the cultural construction of visions of nature through mass media and the ways in which ecologists translate their scientific visions of nature into criteria and images for policy making.