Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

The aim for this essay is to adress questions concering ethnic and cultural experiences and in what way it affects our experience of being in different landscapes. By studying how ethnic experiences are expressed in the landscape and the ongoing process of interaction between them, this essay sets out to discuss the significance of cultural aspects in the landscape. The perspective of this essay is that both landscape and ethnicity can be viewed as something constructed which is shaped and maintained by ongoing interactions in the landscape.
While examples are taken from different parts of the western world, the main focus is to study how these experiences take place and are being negotiatiated in a particular landscape, an allotment area outside Malmö, Sweden.
In the first part it is shown how the landscape can be read as a landscape of powerrelations and how these relations are related to ethnic experiences.
In the next chapter the discussion concerns whether we can talk about different ”ethnic landscapes”. Research suggest that the use and perception of the landscape differs among ethnic groups. In relation to this, two different viewpoints on how to handle this diversity of experiences are presented,
symbolic and inclusive landscape.
In the last chapter the allotment area is studied by using cultural analysis. It is suggested that the allotment area can be considered as an inclusive landscape which contains expressions and experiences from many different ethnic groups. Beginning with Hannah Arendt theory about space of appearance this essay will show how different experiences, expressed in materiality, actions and narratives is part of an ongoing negotiation of constructing the landscape and ethnic relations within it.