Centre for Nature and Society
was the new home for the ISIS Visons of Nature research group
Visions
of nature has been an important common research theme since the
establishment of ISIS in 2005. During the past few years, we have made
significant progress in developing this theme, notably through
international conferences and academic publications. During the years
to come, we want to firmly establish ISIS as a highly visible
international Centre for this type of research. For that
reason, the Centre for Nature and Society is being established.
Interventions
in the natural environment such as deforestation or reconstruction of
nature areas for urban extensions and infrastructure often incite
strong public responses. Therefore, nature conservation does not only
involve ecology but societal aspects as well. Value orientations
determine how people feel about the human-nature relationship and human
interventions in nature. Moreover, how environments appear to us, how
they are interpreted, valued, and dealt with, is to a high degree
dependent on visions of nature: cultural values, images and ideas about
nature and about the human-nature relationship. Environmental
scholarship should therefore include reflections about communication
tools and public participation, and about the various cultural meanings
at play in our relation to the environment.
The Centre for Nature and Society (CNS) combines research in the field
of
social environmental science, environmental philosophy and
environmental ethics, with environmental science. It aims to expand our
understanding of the relationship between humans and the natural world
and contribute to a more sustainable society.
CNS reflects on shifts in our understanding of nature, and on the role
of
particular interpretations of nature in environmental conflicts. It
understands both the impact of natural events on human development as
well as human interventions in nature as an accumulation of decisions
and narratives. Critical reflection on existing views of nature will
help re-examine the relationship between nature and society.
By studying the way that stories bring forward
individual experiences of places and regions, and examining
the role that the land plays in the ways that humans understand
themselves and society at large, CNS
seeks to provide a foundation for alternative environmental practices
and nature policies.
As of early 2019, CNS hads been replaced by the Centre Connection Humans and Nature http://www.ru.nl/cchn
