Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Materiality and Identity – Forests, Trees and Senses of Belonging

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
New Perspectives on People and Forests

Part of the book series: World Forests ((WFSE,volume 9))

Abstract

This chapter explores linkages between forests and identity. It does this in a number of interrelating ways by considering how the very striking and rich materialities of trees and forest landscapes can become entangled in the creation of both individual and collective identities in many ways. This is often articulated through ideas of place and landscape and can operate on intermeshing scales which span from local to global. Identity here is taken as a performed and constructed outcome rather than a static and externally stable fact. The differing ways identities are performed through trees and forest landscapes, be it through work, history, culture, politics, are thus complex outcomes of entanglements between the human and the trees and forests themselves, whose physical forms and lively materialities also play a part in the bonds that exist between peoples and forests.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Adams P, Hoelscher P, Till K (2001) Textures of place: exploring humanist geographies. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis

    Google Scholar 

  • Alvarado J, Korhonen K, Palo M (2001) 8750 threatened tree species in the world? In: Palo M, Uusivuori J, Mery G (eds) World forests, markets and policies. World forests vol III, vol III. Kluwer, Dordrecht, pp 95–96

    Google Scholar 

  • Bachelard G (1988) Air and dreams: an essay on the imagination of movement. Dallas Institute Publications, Dallas

    Google Scholar 

  • Bail M (1999) Eucalyptus. Panther, London, p 16

    Google Scholar 

  • Barad K (2007) Meeting the world halfway: quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning. Duke University Press, Durham

    Google Scholar 

  • Bischoff (2000) Der Hakenkreuz-Wald bei Zernikow kam unter die Säge. Berliner Zeitung, 5 Dec 2000

    Google Scholar 

  • Bryson B (1998) A walk in the woods. Black Swan, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell C in collaboration with the Women’s Group of Xapuri (1996) Out on the front lines but still struggling for voice: women in the rubber tappers. Defense of the forest in Xapuri, Acre, Brazil. In: Rocheleau D, Thomas-Slayter B, Wangari E (eds) Feminist political ecology: global issues and local experiences. Routledge, London/New York, pp 27–61

    Google Scholar 

  • Casey ES (1993) Getting back into place: towards a renewed understanding of the place-world. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, p 80

    Google Scholar 

  • Cloke P, Jones O (2001) Dwelling, place, and landscape: an orchard in Somerset. Environ Plann A 33:649–666

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cloke P, Milbourne P, Thomas C (1996) The English national forest: local reactions to plans for renegotiated nature-society relations in the countryside. Trans Inst Br Geogr 21:552–571

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cronon W (ed) (1996) Uncommon ground: rethinking the human place in nature. Norton, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Daniels S, Brett S (1999) Trees and woods in British art. In: Miles A (ed) Silva: the tree in Britain. Ebury Press, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis D (1988) The evocative symbolism of trees. In: Cosgrove D, Daniels S (eds) The iconography of landscape. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Deakin R (2008) Wildwood: a journey through trees. Penguin, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Fairbrother N (1970) New lives, new landscapes. Penguin, Harmondsworth

    Google Scholar 

  • Finnish Government (2007) Forest. http://www.finland.bg/public/default.aspx?nodeid=36229&contentlan=2&culture=en-US. Accessed 7 Sept 2009

  • Follo G (2002) A hero’s journey: young women among males in forestry education. J Rural Stud 18(3):293–306

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Franklin S (1999) The time of trees. Leonardo Arts, Milan

    Google Scholar 

  • Gates (2000) Trees in trouble. A new campaign to save the world’s rarest species, supplement to BBC wildlife magazine, October. BBC Wildlife Magazine, Bristol

    Google Scholar 

  • Goin P (1996) Humanature. University of Texas Press, Austin, p vii

    Google Scholar 

  • Grange J (1997) Nature: an environmental cosmology. State University of New York Press, Albany, p 72

    Google Scholar 

  • Graves R (1961) The white goddess. Faber & Faber, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Gussow A (1971) A sense of place. Friends of the Earth, San Francisco

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall SJ (1813) Essays on the origins, history and principles of gothic architecture. W. Bulmer, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Hardy T (1978) Under the greenwood tree. Penguin, Harmondsworth

    Google Scholar 

  • Harrison F (1991) The living landscape. Mandarin Paperbacks, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Harrison RP (1992) Forests: the shadow of civilisation. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Heat-Moon WL (1991) PrairyErth: a deep map. Andre Deutsch, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Hecht S, Cockburn A (1989) The fate of the forest. Verso, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Ingold T (1993) The temporality of landscape. World Archaeol 25:152–174

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ingold T (2000) The perception of the environment. Essays in livelihood, dwelling and skill. Routledge, London

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Jones O, Cloke P (2002) Tree cultures: The place of trees, and trees in their place. Berg, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones O, Cloke P (2008) Non-human agencies: tree is place and time. In: Knappett C, Malafouris L (eds) Material agency: towards a non-anthropocentric approach. Springer, Guilford, pp 79–96

    Google Scholar 

  • Karacs I (2000) The swastika in the woods. The Independent Review, 6 Dec 2000

    Google Scholar 

  • Leslie A (1981) The gilt and the gingerbread. Hutchinson, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Long JC (2009) Rooting diaspora, reviving nation: Zionist landscapes of Palestine-Israel. Trans Inst Br Geogr 34(1):61–77

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lovelock J (1988) The ages of gaia: a biography of our living Earth. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Mabey R (1993) Nature and change: the two faces of naturalisation. In: Clifford S, King A (eds) Local distinctiveness: place, particularity and identity. Common Ground, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Mabey R (1997) Flora britannica. Chatto &Windus, London

    Google Scholar 

  • MacCormack C, Strathern M (1980) Nature, culture and gender. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Madge C (2000) Forest spirits and the negotiation of ethnicity and gender among the Jola. In: Cline-Cole R, Madge C (eds) Contesting forestry in West Africa. Ashgate, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Massey D (2005) For Space. Sage, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Massingham HJ (1988) The curse of the conifer. In: Abelson E (ed) A mirror of England: an anthology of the writings of H.J. Massingham (1888–1952). Green Books, Bideford

    Google Scholar 

  • Matless D (1991) Nature, the modern and the mystic, tales from early twentieth century geography. Trans Inst Br Geogr 16:272–286

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Milton J (1634) Comus. http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/19819. Accessed 15 Sept 2009

  • Monk J (1992) Gender in the landscape: expressions of power and meaning. In: Anderson K, Gale F (eds) Inventing places. Longman, Melbourne

    Google Scholar 

  • Nesmith and Radcliffe (1993) (Re)mapping mother earth: a geographical perspective on environmental feminisms. Environ Plann D 11:379–394

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nicholson-Lord D (2000) Trees of Life. Guardian, society, 19 July 2000, p 6

    Google Scholar 

  • Nightingale A (2002) Participating or just sitting in? The dynamics of gender and caste in community forestry. J Forest Livelihood 2(1):17–24

    Google Scholar 

  • Otswald M, Baral R (2000) Local forest protection, gender, and caste. Dhani Hill, Orissa, India. Geogr Ann 82B(3):115–128

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Perlman M (1994) The power of trees: the reforesting of the soul. Spring Publications, Woodstock

    Google Scholar 

  • Pinchot C (1901) The fight for conservation. Harcourt Brace, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Plumwood V (1993) Feminism and the mastery of nature. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Proctor JD (1996) Whose nature? The contested moral terrain of ancient forests. In: Cronon W (ed) Uncommon ground: rethinking the human place in nature. Norton, New York, p 288

    Google Scholar 

  • Rackham O (1996) Trees and woodland in the British landscape. Phoenix, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Radford T (2001) Warning over disappearing forests. Guardian, 21 Aug 2001, p 7

    Google Scholar 

  • Reed MG (2000) Taking stands: a feminist perspective on ‘other’ women’s activism in forestry communities of northern Vancouver Island. Gend Place Cult 7(4):363–388

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rival L (ed) (1998) The social life of trees: anthropological perspectives on tree symbolism. Berg, London, p 9

    Google Scholar 

  • Rolston H III (1999) Ethics on the home planet. In: Weston A (ed) An invitation to environmental philosophy. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Rowe M (2006) Community forestry and landscape identity: planning new forest landscapes. Paper presented at the forum UNESCO university and heritage 10th international seminar. “Cultural landscapes in the 21st century”, Newcastle upon Tyne, 11–16 Apr 2005

    Google Scholar 

  • Rutherfurd E (2000) The forest. Century, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Schama S (1995) Landscape and memory. HarperCollins, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Sibley D (1995) Geographies of exclusion. Routledge, London

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Slater C (1996) Amazonia as edenic narrative. In: Cronon W (ed) Uncommon ground: rethinking the human place in nature. Norton, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith S (2001) Fairy story. In: Sweeny M (ed) The new faber book of children’s poetry. Faber & Faber, London, p 254

    Google Scholar 

  • St Baker BR (1944) I planted trees. Lutterworth Press, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Thoreau DH (1972) In: Moldenhauer JJ (ed) The Maine woods. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Thrift N (1999) Steps to an ecology of place. In: Massey D, Allen J, Sarre P (eds) Human geo­graphy today. Polity Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Tolan S (2007) The lemon tree. Black Swan Books, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Toogood M (1995) Representing ecology and highland tradition. Area 27(2):102–109

    Google Scholar 

  • Townsend J (1995) Women’s voices from the rainforest. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Tsouvalis J (2000) Socialized nature: England’s royal and plantation forests. In: Cook I, Crouch D, Naylor S, Ryan JR (eds) Cultural turns/geographical turns: perspectives on cultural geography. Prentice Hall, Harlow

    Google Scholar 

  • Tuan YF (1974) Topophilia: a study of environmental perception, attitudes, and values. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs

    Google Scholar 

  • Urry J (1990) The tourist Gaze. Sage, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Watkins C (1998a) A solemn and gloomy umbrage: changing interpretations of the ancient oaks of Sherwood Forest. In: Watkins C (ed) European woods and forests: studies in cultural history. CAB International, Wallingford

    Google Scholar 

  • Watkins C (ed) (1998b) European woods and forests: studies in cultural history. CAB International, Wallingford

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams R (1992) Notes on the underground: an essay on technology, society, and the imagination. MIT Press, Massachusetts

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson EO (1984) Biophilia. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson A (1992) The culture of nature. Blackwell, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Wright P (1992) The disenchanted forest. Guardian, Weekend, 7 Nov 1992

    Google Scholar 

  • Zelter A (1998) Grassroots campaigning for the world’s forests. In: Rival L (ed) The social life of trees: anthropological perspectives on tree symbolism. Berg, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Zerubavel Y (1996) The forest as national icon: literature, politics and the archaeology of memory. Israel Stud 1(1):60–99

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the editors for their interest and support and to Professor Paul Cloke with whom the ideas in this chapter were developed.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Countryside and Community Research Institute, University of Gloucestershire, Oxstalls Campus, Oxstalls Lane, Longlevens, Gloucester, UK

    Owain Jones

Authors
  1. Owain Jones
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Owain Jones .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Aalborg University, Sohngaardsholmsvej 57, Aalborg, 9000, Denmark

    Eva Ritter

  2. Red Five Wood Ltd., Cefn Coch, Builth Wells, Powys, Wales, LD2 3PR, United Kingdom

    Dainis Dauksta

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Jones, O. (2011). Materiality and Identity – Forests, Trees and Senses of Belonging. In: Ritter, E., Dauksta, D. (eds) New Perspectives on People and Forests. World Forests, vol 9. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1150-1_11

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation