Tim Burger on “Between Land and Landscape: Islandness and Tourism on the Azorean Archipelago, Portugal”
ContoursTalks series
14.02.2023 16:00 – 18:00
Location: Rachel Carson Center, Conference Room (4th floor), Leopoldstr. 11A, 80802 Munich
Or join us online:
https://lmu-munich.zoom.us/j/91850757476?pwd=NHZmeDRoMDY5NG5PcWZHSVZZbVdjUT09
The appearance of São Jorge Island is changing. Owing to decade-long outmigration and demographic decline, the countless plots of land that used to terrace the slopes of the remote island are becoming overgrown by brushwood. What many remaining residents perceive as a tragic loss of cultivatable land, others herald as a promising sight: a picturesque landscape matching global tourist imaginaries. Proponents of agrarian livelihoods are thus in conflict with tourism advocates over a landscape in the process of being abandoned. In this talk, Tim argues that overgrowing slopes emerge as a key symbol to negotiate larger economic and historical concerns: How should the island be represented? What is an ethical way to make a living in a “remote” emptying locale? How are emic categories altered as one’s environment changes?
About Tim
Tim Burger is a final-year PhD student in Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge. He has conducted fieldwork on São Jorge Island, Portugal, and in Central Java, Indonesia, with a focus on agriculture, economic practices, household relations, and the state.
For more information visit his profile here.
About ContoursTalks
The ContoursTalks series is organized by the ERA.NET-funded research project CONTOURS: Conservation, Tourism, Remoteness. For more information on the CONTOURS project and ContoursTalks, click here.
If you have any further inquiries, please send an email to carolin.maertens@rcc.lmu.de