Linked Research Projects

Early influences and debates on the German landscape geography concept in Russia with comparisons to the UK (late nineteenth century - c1920)

2007-2008, Royal Geographical Society Small Research Grant, PI J Oldfield.

This project stemmed from work on Russian views of 'Sustainable Development' and their historical antecedents. Funded by a grant from the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), and in collaboration with Denis Shaw (University of Birmingham), this work had the following key aims:

  • To explore the intellectual origins of the landscape concept in the Russian geographical tradition, with some comparison to the UK;
  • To identify the main characteristics of the landscape idea as it was understood in Russian and British geographical circles during the late nineteenth and the first part of the twentieth centuries;
  • To survey the major sources in preparation for a detailed study of the origins and development of the landscape concept in Russian geography and cognate disciplines, to compose Russian and English-language bibliographies (together with a preliminary German-language bibliography), and to survey the possibilities for specific archival studies.

Linked publications

  • Shaw, D.J.B. and Oldfield, J.D. (2008) 'Scientific, Institutional and Personal Rivalries among Soviet Geographers in the Late Stalin Era', Europe-Asia Studies, 60(8), October, pp. 1397-1418.
  • Shaw, D.J.B. and Oldfield, J.D. (2008) 'Totalitarianism and geography: L.S. Berg and the defence of an academic discipline in the age of Stalin,' Political Geography, Vol. 27: 96-112.
  • Shaw, D.J.B. and Oldfield, J.D. (2007) 'Landscape science: A Russian geographical tradition,' Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 97(1): 111-126.

Conference / seminar papers

The Cultural Landscape as a Heritage Feature: A Comparative Study of the UK and Russia

2006-2008, British Academy funded project, PI Dr Denis Shaw, CoI Dr Dominique Moran in collaboration with the Russian Scientific Research Institute for Natural and Cultural Heritage, Moscow (Professor Yu A Vedenin)