Embedded Files
Wolton, Emma. 2025. In Sweden, the solastalgia of Europe's only indigenous people in the face of the mining rush. The Conversation.
Wolton, Emma. 2024. An indigenous solastalgia: The effects of a mining project in southern Arizona on the relationship to the landscape of the Tohono O'odham. Landscape Experiences and Digital Practices 30: 1-18 (open issue).
The wonder of landscapes: a driving force for environmental transition?
We assume that the sense of wonder of landscapes constitutes a lever for the respect of the environment, and thus for the socio-ecological transition: 1) the aesthetic component of landscapes leads to an environmental awareness influencing the attachment to landscapes likely to transform certain ecological "diktats" into a desire for action. 2) In the face of the current environmental crisis, cultural diversity and the multiple ways of seeing, feeling and interacting with the landscape can be mutually enriched by their complementary ontological approaches and contribute to a common goal of environmental preservation. 3) This also leads to a reflection on the role of aesthetic feelings in the development of some contemporary legal strategies for natural resources and landscapes. The aesthetic emotions provided by landscapes can be a channel for the recognition of nature that takes place through law.
The Nunavik polar tundra and the Sonoran Desert are archetypal and mythical landscape used as illustrations to understand how the landscape can be both an object of aesthetic appreciation and an object of moral and legal concern, in order to respond to contemporary environmental issues. The Arctic landscape is perceived by Westerners as a "void" that provides natural resources and as a wilderness to be preserved. On the contrary, for the inhabitants of Nunavik, mainly the Inuit indigenous communities, this landscape is perceived, felt and lived as the mother earth of which they are the guardians. In what way and how can the beauty of the Nunavik tundra landscape, as perceived by some and others, stop or accompany hydroelectric dams, mines and urbanization projects? How can aesthetic sentiment be a driving force for action in the governance of an Arctic environment where global warming is particularly acute?
Biographies :
Fabienne Joliet (géographie culturelle) est professeure au Pôle Paysage de l’Institut Agro (Angers), UMR ESO (Cnrs n°6590). Elle appréhende les mythes fondateurs à la proue des filtres culturels d’appréciation des paysages occidentaux (Arcadie pour le paysage rural – Wilderness pour le paysage « naturel » ou sauvage) ainsi que les filtres culturels de populations autochtones (Inuit, Cris, Samis, Amazhig) à l’égard de leurs propres paysages.
Thora Herrmann (géographie culturelle) est chercheure au Centre Helmholtz pour la recherche environnementale et au Centre allemand de recherche intégrative sur la biodiversité. À travers ses projets de recherche-création et de citizen science, elle étudie les relations pluridimensionnelles entre les sociétés et la nature. Elle travaille en collaboration avec les Premières Nations, les Inuits, les Samis, et les Mapuches sur la perception, le ressenti, et le vécu de leur milieu, en utilisant des méthodologies basées sur les arts visuels, comme la réalisation de films et le photovoice, ainsi que la cartographie interactive.
Emma Wolton est doctorante à l’école doctorale Sociétés, Temps & Territoires (Université d’Angers). Sa thèse porte sur le rôle que peut jouer l’esthétique dans la transition écologique et la protection des ressources naturelles au Nunavik (Canada). Elle est chercheuse associée à l’équipe Environnement : Concepts et Normes, à l’Institut Jean Nicod (Paris) qui s’interroge sur la valeur et la reconceptualisation de la nature.
Sacha Bourgeois-Gironde est professeur d’économie et droit à l’Université Paris 2- Panthéon Assas et responsable de l’équipe Environnement : Concepts et Normes à l’Institut Jean-Nicod. Son travail actuel porte notamment sur les droits de la nature et sur le rôle que des communautés épistémiques autochtones jouent dans l’émergence et le contenu de ces droits.
Cassidy Schoenfelder She is an Oglála Lakȟóta geographer and art historian based in Tucson, Arizona (Tohono O'o'dham and Pascua Yaqui lands). She researches the role of Indigenous visualities within land management cooperative agreements (memorandum of understandings, co-management, and co-stewardship) between tribal governments and federal agencies like the National Park Service. Forms of visual representation have critical geographical and political implications for land management, including legal determinations and frameworks for how the land is cared for and who it’s cared for by. In this way, centering forms of representation that are produced and controlled by Indigenous Peoples can influence tribal decision-making, trust-building, ecotourism strategies, and the integration of active cultural practices within the park.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse