Exploring Landscape Character: A Socio-Ecological Analysis in the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

by Iris Bohnet

The concept of landscape character in creating local distinctiveness has long been recognised in the UK. It is only recently, however, that the concept has come to define a research agenda looking at both the causes and consequences of landscape change. In this research, a transdisciplinary approach was used to investigate the character and qualities of two agricultural landscapes and to understand past and future change. Through farm-based assessments, landscape character was analysed in terms of landscape coherences. Semi-structured interviews with farmers' enabled these coherences to be related to farmers' activities and management motives. 'Leitbilder' were developed at the local and farm level and the link between farm and locality explored. A clear link was found between farmers' attitudes towards landscape and the contribution of their farms to the local landscape. The 'Leitbild' approach elaborated in this research offers new opportunities for agricultural policy development and future landscape planning.

512 pages, Paperback

Published May 25, 2011

About the author

Iris Bohnet, Professor of Public Policy, is a behavioral economist at Harvard Kennedy School, combining insights from economics and psychology to improve decision-making in organizations and society, often with a gender or cross-cultural perspective. She is the author of What Works: Gender Equality by Design, published by Harvard University Press in 2016. Her most recent research examines behavioral design to de-bias how we live, learn and work. Professor Bohnet served as the academic dean of the Kennedy School, is the director of its Women and Public Policy Program, the co-chair (with Max Bazerman) of the Behavioral Insights Group, an associate director of the Harvard Decision Science Laboratory, and the faculty chair of the executive program “Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century” for the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders. She serves on the boards of directors of Credit Suisse Group and University of Lucerne, as well as the advisory boards of the Vienna University of Economics and Business, EDGE and Applied, as well as numerous academic journals. She is a member of the Global Agenda Council on Behavior of the World Economic Forum.