Political landscapes between manifestations and democracy, identities and power

This editorial discusses the importance of a political perspective on landscapes and comes to the conclusion that political aspects can be discovered in virtually all landscapes as they are inevitably imbued with politics, antagonistic dimensions and power. It furthermore analyses previous research on political landscapes and on ‘the political’ in relation to landscapes. It does so with reference to four key aspects: (a) physical and representational manifestations, (b) landscape democracy, (c) collective or individual identities and (d) productive or repressive power relationships. These aspects establish a framework according to which the subsequent papers of this special issue are introduced. Finally, a tentative agenda for further research on ‘political landscapes’ is outlined.