UPDATE Feb 2020: The 2019 Commissioned Research Paper has been awarded to Nadia Bartolini and Caitlin DeSilvey, both affiliated with the University of Exeter’s Environment and Sustainability Institute, who will write on the topic of “Landscape Futures.” The paper will be finalised later this year. 

As part of a new series of Commissioned Review Papers (commenced in 2017), the Editorial Team of the journal Landscape Research is seeking expressions of interest for our second commissioned review.

We invite applications for a small research grant of up to £2,000 to support the production of a peer-reviewed paper that responds to the theme of ‘landscape futures.’

This call follows the successful publication of our first commissioned review titled “Defining Landscape Justice: The role of landscape in supporting wellbeing of migrants, a literature review”, authored by Shelley Egoz and Alessia De Nardi and published in Volume 42 of the journal. That Review responded directly to the first of the Landscape Research Group’s (LRG) strategic priorities, “Landscape Justice”, as outlined in the LRG’s Research Strategy, launched in 2017.

This second call for a commissioned review connects with the second priority outlined in the LRG’s Research Strategy, which seeks to tackle “rapid environmental change”. This priority has emerged in response to “a pressing need to review human-nature relations, and to secure more sustainable ways of living in a radically changing environment” (LRG Research Strategy 2017: p.9). Moreover, it is committed to research that advances the field in the following ways (see p.10):

  1. Identifies and understands the transformative landscape effects of environmental change;
  2. Recognises and develops the opportunities inherent in change for positive landscape development;
  3. Helps to deliver paths to the future which are both environmentally and socially sound.

The Commissioned Review

Landscape Research invites applications for a small research grant of up to £2,000 to support the production of a peer-reviewed paper that responds to the theme of ‘landscape futures’ and complies with the following criteria:

  • Provides a comprehensive review of the literature on landscape futures or the futures of landscape (or on a clearly defined sub-field);
  • Helps to further define ‘landscape futures’ and develops frameworks for understanding this area of scholarship;
  • Critically assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the field (e.g. in terms of approaches, conceptual frameworks, methodologies and so forth); and
  • Identifies research gaps and future research directions.

Timeline

  • Deadline for submission of applications for funding: 1st November 2019
  • Decisions notification: 29th November 2019
  • First submission of paper: 30th April 2020
  • Peer review completed: 29th May 2020
  • Revised manuscript: 31st July 2020

The Commissioned Review should adopt a similar format to a Critical Review Article and adhere to the journal’s word limit of no more than 7000 words, inclusive of tables, references, figure captions and endnotes.

How to apply

Please complete and submit the application form by email to Professor Emma Waterton (e.waterton@westernsydney.edu.au).

> Details and application form (editable PDF)

Please note: Commissioned reviews will be independently peer-reviewed in keeping with the journal’s peer-review policy