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

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

Conference questions? Email admin.ivsa2009@cumbria.ac.uk

The 2009 International Visual Sociology Association conference will be held in the county of Cumbria in the North West of England, probably better known as the English Lake District. It is being hosted by University of Cumbria, through the Faculty of the Arts with support from the Carlisle Conference Group.

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.

In addition to the IVSA conference travel and accommodation page, visit the Cumbria Tourist Board website and the historic Carlisle website for more information on places to go and things to do.