The B-Shapes project, led by South Denmark University, publishes its third Policy Brief, The recognition of border landscapes as a shared heritage by Eeva-Kaisa Prokkola, Fredriika Jakola, Dorte Jagetic Andersen, Martin Guillermo Ramírez, Martin Klatt, Oriana Miraka, Caitriona Mullan and Sara Svensson.
Borders Shaping Perceptions of European Societies (B-SHAPES) is a Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Action project that analyses how borders remain a key factor in our understanding of societies. Eight European universities, one research institute, a national museum, a foundation, a political association, a consultancy, and an art collective have come together for three years to exchange points of view, do research, organise focus groups, border walks, plenty of workshops and other events, as well as presentations in congresses and symposia, various sets of publications, and plenty of information about minorities, euroescepticism and landscape in border areas. Many feelings, opportunities, fears, hopes, and threats have been shared by local stakeholders, project holders, local and regional authorities, chambers of commerce, universities, enterprises and their associations, and civil society.
Landscape conservation and heritage policies in the European Union are closely connected. The European Landscape Convention, established in 2000, highlights the heritage value of landscapes and the sustainable management of landscapes. The policy underscores that landscapes know no state borders and that they are not the concern of individual states alone. Globally, the subject of transboundary multilevel governance for environmental conservation, protection, and management is gaining traction as an operational theme in policy discourse.
Recognising and protecting valuable transboundary natural and cultural areas is attracting greater policy and scholarly attention. European border regions and their landscapes are specific sites for evaluating the regional- and local-scale adoption and implementation of landscape policy. Border landscapes are shaped by environmental, economic, and political changes across two or more countries, thereby affecting land, maritime, and aquatic borders. The evaluation of the landscape policy requires attention to practices, knowledge, and values connected with the landscape on both sites along the border. Border landscapes are environments in which the responsibility for a shared environment becomes visible and salient in people’s perceptions, with concrete implications for health and human security.
B-Shapes research provides insight into how different interests and values concerning natural and cultural landscapes as heritage manifest in the institutionalised narratives of European border regions. It addresses the need to better understand how to incorporate transnational and cross-border dimensions into perceptions, practices, and policies of regional and local landscape heritage.
Read here the full policy brief #3
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