Full Project Title: 'Reframing Eryri in praxis: Anticipating future needs for renewed understandings, relations and approaches to landscape in the Welsh decision-making process'
Doctoral Researcher: Alex Ioannou
Supervised by: Dr Shaun Evans and Dr Norman Dandy
Research supported by: The Drapers’ Company
Alex’s project is a joint initiative of ISWE and the . His project is interdisciplinary and placed to make a distinctive contribution towards how we might address one of the most urgent global challenges. So many aspects of the environmental and sustainability issues which confront us are tied to land and landscape: how it’s used, managed, fashioned and viewed. Our society’s relationship with land and landscape – in terms of these practices and perceptions – is heavily influenced by heritage, tradition, culture and identity.
The proposed research seeks to assimilate a more comprehensive and nuanced understanding of this historical ‘story’ of landscape in Wales since c.1760 (with particular reference to a case study area and associated historical evidence in Gwynedd). Using this historical context as a foundation, the project will then seek to make use of this ‘story’ to influence (or ‘reframe’) contemporary attitudes and perceptions towards land and landscape, through appropriate engagement and knowledge-exchange activities. In doing so, it will promote ¾«¶«´«Ã½â€™s strategic commitment to the sustainability agenda and civic engagement.
The aim of this research project is to connect current discussions about landscape change with the past and to provide alternative ‘frames’ to the ones that have driven us for so long. Alex’s hope is to help Wales cultivate a different relationship with its land. The project website is:
Alex has produced a two-part online lecture about his project which covers his key findings from his archival and community research, which also includes a description of his approach to studying landscape change in Dyffryn Ogwen. You can view and .
Published Papers:
'Eleftheria Square: The Legacies and Dichotomies Woven into Nicosia’s Urban Fabric', Cyprus Review 35:2 (2024), 89-111.
'Towards a reframing of Eryri: how historic framings of landscape influence perceptions and expectations of a Welsh national park', Architecture_MPS 26:1 (2023).
Alex Ioannou, ‘Research methodologies for changing landscapes and places in flux’, in Fabian Neuhaus (ed.), , AMPS Proceedings Series 30 (University of Calgary, 28-30 June 2022), 257-67.
Conferences:
22nd Annual Historic Houses International Conference at Maynooth University, Ireland (May 13-14, 2024)
Landscape Decisions Programme Final Conference, Landscape Decisions Programme at Royal Society, London (September 6-7, 2023)
The RGS-IBG Annual International Conference, Royal Geographical Society, London (August/September 30-1, 2023)
