The German-speaking Landscape Research Network will host its 13th annual workshop in Uppsala, Sweden, from 24–26 September 2026, bringing together researchers to explore how landscape research can contribute to wider societal transitions.
Titled Rethinking Landscape for Societal Transition: A German–Scandinavian Dialogue, the workshop will take place at the Department of Urban and Rural Development at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) and is organised by Andrew Butler, Mattias Qviström, and Vera Vicenzotti—all closely connected with Landscape Research, as current or former editors and members of the journal’s international advisory community.
The event continues a workshop series organised by the AK Landschaftsforschung (Landscape Research Working Group) since 2011. These annual gatherings provide an important forum for dialogue between scholars working on landscape from social science, humanities and interdisciplinary perspectives.
A dialogue between research traditions
This year’s workshop aims to strengthen intellectual exchange between German-speaking and Scandinavian landscape research communities. Historically, these traditions were closely connected, but after the Second World War Scandinavian landscape research increasingly aligned with Anglophone scholarship. The workshop seeks to reopen dialogue between these traditions, recognising that each offers distinct conceptual approaches and research perspectives.
For the first time, the workshop will be conducted entirely in English, opening participation to a wider international audience and making it particularly relevant to members of the Landscape Research Group network.
The organisers frame the discussion around a central question:
How can we rethink the concept of landscape and reimagine landscape practices to foster societal transformation?
This question reflects growing interest in landscape research as a way to understand and respond to global challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss and social inequality. Landscapes can be understood both as places where these pressures become visible and as arenas in which new relationships between people, place and the more-than-human world can emerge.
Themes and contributions
Contributions are invited across a number of thematic strands, including:
- Rethinking landscape concepts in light of contemporary environmental and social challenges
- Landscape as arenas for transitions, where interdisciplinary dialogue and public participation take place
- Landscapes of societal transitions, documenting and interpreting changing landscapes and their narratives
- Landscape change and populist contestation, examining tensions between preservation, transformation and political discourse
The workshop will combine keynote sessions, paper presentations and experimental formats, alongside a full-day field excursion designed to encourage discussion among participants.
Both speed talks (10 minutes) and regular presentations (20 minutes) are invited, and the organisers particularly encourage contributions from students and early-career researchers, alongside established scholars and practitioners.
Call for abstracts
Researchers interested in presenting at the workshop are invited to submit an abstract of up to 1,500 characters.
Key dates include:
- 30 April 2026 – Abstract submission deadline
- 29 May 2026 – Notification of acceptance
- 19 June 2026 – Registration deadline
- 24–26 September 2026 – Workshop in Uppsala, including a field excursion
Abstracts should be sent to workshop-landscaperesearch@slu.se.
Further information
The workshop is organised in cooperation with the Landscape Research Group and the AK Landschaftsforschung network.
For further information, LRG members can contact the organisers:
- Andrew Butler – andrew.butler@slu.se
- Mattias Qviström – mattias.qvistrom@slu.se
- Vera Vicenzotti – vera.vicenzotti@slu.se
