Attachment to the Ordinary Landscape

Abstract

The phrase "attachment to the ordinary landscape" seems simple and straightforward, if vague and inclusive. Nevertheless, each of the three critical terms deserves attention. Attachment I define as an affective relationship between people and the landscape that goes beyond cognition, preference, or judgment. Ordinary means routine, experienced in everyday life. This excludes "special" landscapes, those that contrast with routine experience, landscapes such as shrines and wilderness. Landscape I use in a broad, naive sense, as a setting for human experience and activity. In scale, it might be described as "larger than a household but smaller than one of earth's biogeograph-ical regions." It includes some of the spatial topics of other chapters in this book, such as possessions, childhood places, community, home, and home gardens.