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This paper addresses the social resonances to the complex causes, effects, and feedback of land loss in southern Louisiana, particularly with respect to the region’s vulnerability to the impacts of anthropogenic climate change, especially against the backdrop of the consequences and side effects of the resident petrochemical industry. Using empirical findings from an online discussion about coastal land loss and talks to people in Louisiana, the different perceptions of coastal land loss of affected and not-affected people become apparent. As a result of the high complexity of the topic, a meta-theoretical framing by neopragmatism, as well as an analytical framing based on Popper’s theory of three worlds, is provided.

Cartographic representations are subject to sensory perception and rely on the translation of sensory perceptions into cartographic symbols. In this respect, cartography is closely related to aesthetics, as it represents an academic discipline of sensory perceptions. The scholarly concern with cartographic aesthetics, by today, has strongly been focused on the aesthetic impact of cartographic representations. The consideration of the philosophical sub-discipline of aesthetics however is rather restrained. This is also true for the connection between sociological questions and the social construction of aesthetic judgments. We address both topics in this article. We refer to post-critical cartographic theory. It accepts the socially constructed nature and power-bound nature of maps but does not reject “traditional” and widely established positivist cartography. Drawing on the theory of deviant cartographies related to this, we understand cartography designed according to aesthetic criteria as meta-deviant, as it makes the contingency of world interpretations clear. Especially augmented and virtual environments show a great potential to generate aesthetically constructed cartographic representations. Participatory cartography enables many people to reflect on the contingency of their spatial experiences and spatial abstractions without expert-like special knowledge. A prerequisite, however, is the greatest possible openness to topics and representations. This is not subject to a moral restriction.

With his text “Philosophy of Landscape” (German original: “Philosophie der Landschaft”), the German sociologist and philosopher Georg Simmel laid a foundation for landscape research that is still significant today. In the text, he equates the creation and perception of landscape with the creation of a painting. In doing so, he provided an essential foundation for landscape research with a constructivist orientation. In order to be able to grasp the differentiated nature of landscape analytically and to apply it to Simmel’s understanding of landscape, we resort to the approach of the three landscapes, which was developed from Karl Popper’s theory of the three worlds. The pictorial metaphor of Simmel’s understanding of landscapes, however, had the effect of limiting landscape to the visual, and often to what he described as ‘natural’. It did not address the power-bound nature of landscape. These aspects, however, are of great importance in current discussions about landscape. Aspects of power, multisensuality, and the incorporation of non-natural elements gain additional currency through the creation of augmented and virtual landscapes. This concerns, on the one hand, the creation of these landscapes, on the other hand, their individual internal consciousness, as well as their social construction. These show, not least, the contingency of landscape construction. They offer possibilities for the investigation of landscape stereotypes, and how innovations can be fed into the social construction of landscape to engage other senses beyond the sense of sight. The aim of our paper is to use conceptual critique to reflect on the conceptual development of social and cultural studies in landscape research since Simmel and to present its potential for framing research on AR and VR landscapes.

Energy transition plays a central role in efforts to reduce anthropogenic global warming. However, energy transition involves physical manifestations, for example in the form of wind turbines, photovoltaic plants, and power lines, which trigger resistance, especially among those who live in the vicinity of the (planned) plants. The reasons for this resistance are complex, as they relate to residents’ emotional ties and/or stereotypical common-sense expectations of landscape. The complexity of landscape conflicts in general, and energy transition-related conflicts in particular, makes it difficult to capture the intricacy of the subject matter by means of a single theoretical perspective. To address this difficulty, a neopragmatic approach of identifying and combining appropriate theoretical perspectives is utilized to develop an analytic framework for understanding these conflicts. To this end, we draw on Dahrendorf’s conflict theory and the framing approach. Both have high complementary explanatory potential and empirical applicability, with the framing approach broadening the theoretical prism to include micro-individuals and groups to Dahrendorf’s meso-social perspective.

In recent years, the presence of immersive virtual reality (VR) in everyday life has increased, and VR is also being studied in research. However, this research is essentially limited to technical issues, while the social relevance of VR remains largely unconsidered. Current social science research on VR remains bound to an empiricist paradigm; a theoretical framing is only done in exceptions. This article presents current social science theories related to space and landscape research, describes their application and potentials, with regard to the investigation of virtual spaces, and discusses which theoretical positions are suitable for the investigation of particular immersive VR-related questions. This investigation presents a range of approaches such as essentialism, positivism, and constructivism; theories such as critical, conflict, and discourse; and more-than-representational theories such as Phenomenology, Assemblage, and Actor-Network-Theory.

The present contribution to a neopragmatic approach to regional geography attempts to collect, structure, and reflect knowledge with different spatial, social, and cultural references. This is not a matter of designing a classical regional or landscape “compartmentalization” of distinct spatial units, which are characterized by a specific reciprocal shaping of culture and the initial physical substrate, but of investigating and reflecting the reciprocal influences of different levels of scale as well as the construction mechanisms and contingency of spatial units. By means of “theoretical” and also empirical “triangulation”, a differentiated picture of complex research objects—here Baton Rouge, LA—is generated, whereby (partial) contradictions between theoretical approaches and the relationship between the various appropriately chosen theories and equally well-chosen empirical methods are also accepted.

The significance of play in the construction of landscape involving the feedback relationships between social conventions and the individual and between the individual and physical space, contrastingly, has so far received only little scientific attention. Games, however, take on great significance in the process of socialization in order to introduce the socializing person into the interpretations, valuations, and practices of the social world, which applies correspondingly to landscape. Play is an essential element of comprehending the concept “landscape”. Accordingly, this present essay deals with conceptual considerations of the function of games in relation to the social and individual construction of landscape. The theoretical framing of landscape will be carried out within the theory of the three landscapes, following Karl Popper’s three worlds. This theoretical framing also involves fundamental considerations on the connection between games and landscapes, which will be illustrated in more detail by means of two case examples, i.e., model railroads and pinball landscapes. It is shown that the playful engagement with landscape takes place in two dimensions: On the one hand, role expectations, norms, and values associated with landscape are conveyed, thus providing guidance for individual construction and individual experience of landscape. On the other hand, landscape contingencies can be tested. They address norms of interpretation and evaluation of landscape that are considered as bound together. Moreover, innovations can be tested, which may have been established in the social understanding of landscape.