Towards a landscape ecosophy. Interpreting how the Villarrica-Pucón urban system inhabitants in the Araucanía region of Chile perceive and relate with the dynamics of Landscape

Abstract

As a reaction to the complex global crisis, the notion of ecological urbanism has emerged in order to understand and attend the inaccuracy between the urban system and the environment of which it is a part. This article suggests that the form we perceive the city-nature relation deeply determines the praxis of urbanism arguing that the problem of ecological urbanism is essentially epistemological and ethical. Accordingly, the article introduces the concept of “landscape ecosophy” through which not only is possible to understand the indivisible connection of perception and socio-ecological practices, but also help us to reconnect the praxis of urbanism with a relational epistemology and landscape. The article empirically seeks to interpret how the Villarrica and Pucón urban system inhabitants in the Araucanía Region of Chile perceive and relate with the mountain and lacustrine landscapes in their daily practices of inhabitation. To achieve this, an ethnographic methodology is used. The discussion central line is represented by the question, ‘So close, but so far?’, as in spite of the fact that both cities are deeply connected to the landscape, their socio-cultural constructions are defined by the notions of disconnection and a lack of awareness. On the other hand, in a sort of circular causality, the article also identifies how certain urban initiatives may not only imply a reconnection between the urban system and the landscape of which it is a part, but also contribute to trigger the emergence of deeper landscape ecosophies.

The Andean Southern Volcanic Zone: a review on the legacy of the latest volcanic eruptions

“…For instance, the ice-clad volcanoes serve as important freshwater resources (e.g., Rivera et al, 2006, Rivera andBrown, 2013), while food availability and a benign climate have favoured human inhabitation around SVZ volcanoes since postglacial times (e.g., Montané, 1968;Moreno and Varela, 1985;Dillehay and Collins, 1988;Mancini et al, 2013;Pino et al, 2013;Forte et al, 2022). This aspect of long-standing occupation is related to the second dimension, in that post-colonial communities continued using similar locations for rural and urban development to those occupied during the pre-colonisation times (e.g., Petit-Breuilh, 2004;Aguayo et al, 2009;Salazar and Jalabert, 2015;Harambour, 2019;Grau and Foguet, 2021), increasing human exposure in volcanic areas.…”

Multiscapes and Urbanisation: The Case for Spatial Agroecology

“…They began as subdisciplines of 'ecology' in the original, purely biological sense, namely, as the study of relations between organisms and their environment [57]. By the end of the twentieth century, both disciplines had departed from mechanistic and reductionist visions of reality, resulting in new understandings of the biosphere and human inhabitation of it [12,58]. Similarly, in both disciplines, the concept of ecosystems existing in a state of equilibrium has progressed to acknowledge a new reality of heterogeneous systems that operate in states far removed from equilibrium [29,[59][60][61].…”

“…Depending on which literature and perspective is chosen, urbanisation [3][4][5] and agriculture [6][7][8][9][10] will be either key components to the transition to sustainability or major threats to sustainability. Either way, there has yet to evolve a unifying conceptual or methodological praxis [11,12] that (a) looks at the two synoptically and (b) presents spatial mechanisms to reconcile urban growth with the enhancement of the critical ecosystem services provided by agricultural hinterlands.…”

La reconfiguración capitalista de los espacios urbanos: Transformaciones y desigualdades

“…Con el inicio del siglo XXI, estas acciones se mantuvieron y acrecentaron, estableciéndose en estos paños rurales una forma urbana de alta concentración, emplazada a una distancia considerable del borde lacustre, dedicado en su totalidad a servicios de turismo gastronómico, hotelería y esparcimiento. La alta concentración en la sección oriental de la ciudad para desarrollos de proyectos inmobiliarios de alto valor señala, además, la clausura en el acceso al borde lacustre de conjuntos subsidiados de vivienda con aporte estatal (Salazar, Fonck y Vergara 2018;Salazar y Jalabert, 2016). Esto último ha sido verificado en los últimos años, generando un cordón intercomunal entre Villarrica y la vecina Pucón, cuya principal definición territorial apunta a parcelaciones de agrado, clubes de campo y negocios turísticos de tiempo compartido o alquiler de cabañas, como se denominan mayoritariamente en Chile a las viviendas de veraneo (Figura 2).…”