Introduction: Three Faces of Power in Landscape Change

This chapter presents a conceptual perspective on political economies of landscape change. It begins with vignettes from metropolitan Chicago, and shows how those examples rapidly spin out to linkages and comparisons with other regions of the world. The first section surveys academic fields related to political economies of landscape change. While each of these fields makes important contributions, their literatures reveal surprisingly few concrete connections between landscape inquiry and social research on politics and economics. Surprising, because landscape planners and designers deal with “politics” and “economics” every day on every project. The second section thus develops a conceptual approach for bridging these gaps by adapting futurist Kenneth Boulding’s Three Faces of Power, which links political and economic power with a third face that Boulding calls integrative power – the enabling force of human respect, wisdom and love. The main thesis in this volume is that integrative power is the inherent aim of landscape inquiry, planning, and design. This conceptual framework seeks a deeper understanding of relationships between political economy and landscape change. Along with the chapters and case studies that follow, it reveals just how much needs to be done to attain the integrative power of landscape change in the 21st century. And finally, we introduce the substantive chapters, each of which sheds new light on political economies of landscape change and the prospects for progressive places of power.