2009 IVSA CONFERENCE
Cumbria, UK
July 22-24, 2009

Appreciating the views:
How we're looking at the social and visual landscape

Photo courtesy of N. Jenkings

The 2009 International Visual Sociology Association conference will be held in the north-west UK region of Cumbria, probably better known as the English Lake District. It's being jointly hosted by the University of Cumbria and one of its Research Institutes, the Centre for Landscape and Environmental Arts Research (CLEAR). The conference will address two interrelated main themes; of subject – Landscape and the Environment, and of approach – the varied methodologies of visual enquiry.

The English Lakes area is one of outstanding natural beauty; it has both the highest mountains and the deepest lakes in England, touches one end of Hadrian's Wall on the Scottish / English border, and has been a conserved and protected National Park since 1974. It's also the land of Wordsworth and Coleridge, writers of the C19 Romantic period who've left a strong legacy of the language of the ethereal and sublime attached to its crags and dales. Having been subject itself to such definitively bounded meanings it's therefore a fitting backdrop for a conference looking at current ideas of just how we conceive terms like 'landscape' and 'environment', both of which are now highly contested terms. Increasing concerns over global warming and population increase have refocused our attention toward which interests have or should be allowed to affect the wider environment, and a discourse which in the past has been largely the concern of geographers is now firmly in the sociological arena of debate around public policy. The notion of landscape is a similarly contested one, arising in ideas of class based aesthetic appreciation and land ownership in the past, but now very much part of the dialogue of conservation and the hegemony of the 'natural'. We invite anyone engaged or involved in debates around these topics to take up the chance to contribute to this event.

Photo courtesy of N. Jenkings

The International Visual Sociology Association has a consistent history of being a particularly open academic forum, keen to encourage and support discourse across a wide and interdisciplinary constituency. Since its formation back in the 70's, academic breadth has always been one of its major strengths, and certainly one of its most welcoming aspects for new members and contributors. However, that's not to suggest that its chosen 'visual' field is any more free from the usual conflicts over ultimate 'meaning' than other academic paradigms - just that the points where disciplinary tensions may arise within the IVSA orbit do tend not to be immediately seen as calls to the barricades but as objective features of particular interest in themselves; moments to re-evaluate our own agendas and see if we have anything to learn from the differing approaches or perspectives of others. Therefore as well as addressing its central 'content' themes of landscape and environment, this conference also intends to offer an opportunity to take an overview of the theoretical debates that currently find a place within the umbrella terms of 'visual sociology', and consider particularly how our general shared field of discourse and practice might be benefiting from such interdisciplinarity.

Recent IVSA conferences, supported by our journal 'Visual Studies' and some very active discussion on the IVSA list serve, have reflected an active and ongoing discussion about the nature of just what is visual sociology today. The content of putative textbooks, existing worldwide college and university syllabi, and the sharing of useful case studies from differing perspectives have all appeared, and plenary sessions at our recent conferences have consistently drawn attention to the enriching effect of an ever wider range of approaches and discipline bases among the contributors. Although recognising clearly that any attempt to set boundaries in an academic (and necessarily pluralistic) field is usually to invite some inevitable attack, within all these expressed debates there do seem to be three broad patterns of recognisable conceptual approach, representable in the most general sense as 'sociological' 'mediated' and 'creative'.

Sociological - visually based strategies such as photography or video used as an evidence gathering mode in social contexts, leading to results and information which suit possible intervention in social decision making. Rooted strongly in documentary accuracy, these tend to retain the 'active involvement' ethnographic aspect of more traditional field sociology, with participants actively engaging with their subject or area of study in some way.

Mediated - semiotic and other 'meaning reading' strategies, examining externally produced media examples to reveal or illustrate structural frames of ideological reference, which in turn inform debates about the legacy of particular conceptual viewpoints and paradigms of influence. Including historical takes on the sociological, these tend to operate critically on a 'reading into from outside' principle, with readers maintaining some empirical distance from their topics of study.

Creative - the practice of the creative and expressive (from artists to advertisers), consciously making some form of motivated comment on symbolic patterns of social engagement or belief through formats which are necessarily visual. These insider views tend to focus on the context and 'intention to express' of the creator/participant, lessons learned along the way, and evaluations of their ability and/or success in achieving that desired communicative aim.

We therefore particularly welcome contributions within the general perspective of landscape and the environment issues which might align with or exemplify debate around such approaches - or indeed cross them in ways which could challenge the validity of such boundaries at all. This conference intends to offer us a chance to consider and evaluate the IVSA's precedent and position within such theoretical debates, and just possibly also consider - as a body which has always offered a conceptual lead within the disciplines of visual sociology - where we might be going.

Submission dates

There are three key dates; a first one for panel organisers, a second which will show the accepted panel headings and invite individual papers for a peer-review process, and a third for those working on projects linked to academic year structures.

Photo courtesy of J. Prosser

CALL FOR PANELS
Closing date — 24 November 2008 (24.00 GMT)

Possible start points for panels might include:

• Ideas and representations of the wild
• Definitions of the urban and the rural
• Visual dimensions in environmental politics
• Changes in landscape use
• Land based lives and occupations
• Land based sports and activities
• Landscape representation
• Landscape and identity
• Landscape as a representation of nationalism
• Environment defined above concepts of nation
• 'Act local think global' - the politicised environment
• Intersections between local and global landscape
• Contested claims to the land - challenges to developments etc.
• Landscape aesthetics and their appreciation - the sublime etc.
• Landscape intervention - national parks etc.
• Colonial and post-colonial mapping of identity
• Landscape ideologies in advertising, film etc.
• Creative interpretations of landscape and the environment

(This is of course not by any means an exhaustive list – remembering that we are a visually based organisation, we do actively expect ideas and themes which expand and enhance this kind of indicative perspective)

Panel organisers are expected to provide: a panel title, a 250 to 300 word summary / abstract expanding the intentions that inform their intended panel theme, their contact details, and a very brief simple identifying sentence on themselves / the panel chair. (i.e. "Attila is a project leader at the Pan-Asiatic Institute of Land Conquest, and has long standing research interests in travel and social anthropology".

Panel proposals should be sent in one email to:
panels.ivsa2009@cumbria.ac.uk
with the words: 'IVSA 2009 panel proposal' in the title header, or sent by surface mail (to arrive no later than December 1, 2008) to:

IVSA 2009 Panel Proposal
RACES
University of Cumbria
Milbourne Street campus
Carlisle
Cumbria
CA3 9AY
United Kingdom

The full list of accepted panels and their organisers will appear on the IVSA website soon after this, along with the more detailed call for individual papers.

Any pre-submission questions on academic content or conceptual matters should be directed to gordon.simpson.ivsa2009@cumbria.ac.uk with any pressing enquiries on the practical and organisational side going to karen.bassett.ivsa2009@cumbria.ac.uk Please put 'IVSA 2009 enquiry' in your email title header.

Further details on travel and accommodation will soon be posted on the conference page of the IVSA website, but the website for the Cumbria Tourist Board will whet your appetite in the meantime; find it at http://www.golakes.co.uk