Translating the landscape. The reciprocity of representations and other realities.

Context: Land use management builds on past perceptions of the landscape. This paper argues for taking the production of scientific knowledge into account, and that landscape ecology will benefit from attention to the historical legacy of typologization and land cover representations. Objectives: Showing the importance of how the material, physical landscape reality and various kinds of representation interact in attempts to designate areas worthy of nature protection. Method: Using archival material, the paper uses the concept of translation from sociology of knowledge to analyze the negotiations on the typology of a salt meadow in a nature protection case in 1980s Denmark. Results: The research shows how typologization functions as translation from site to general representations whereby it fixates the place in a certain condition that underpins later use and management. Through this, the paper shows the power of categorization and mapping in land use management. Conclusion: The paper calls for a greater attention to the historical roots and complexities of typologies in landscape and nature management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]