Author Description

There is no generally valid, recognised definition of what landscape actually is. On the basis of its relatedness to the environment, to aesthetics, territory, society, politics, economics, geography, planning, ethnology and philosophy, the concept of landscape is considered to be a "composite" notion shaped by a thousand years of Central European ideas and of literary and art history. In other words, the very term "landscape" is ambiguous and it is used in different ways both in the scholarly world and everyday speech. The aim of this volume is to present various possible approaches to the phenomenon of "landscape". Far from laying any claim to be exhaustive or comprehensive we have simply tried to do justice to the overarching interdisciplinary approach of the Zentrum für Landschaftsinterpretation und Tourismus (ZELT: Centre for Landscape Interpretation and Tourism) by singling out and addressing individual instances of this fascinating multifaceted phenomenon.