Path dependence and landscape: initial conditions, contingency and sequences of events in latgale, latvia

The notion of path dependence has not yet been well explored as a tool for analysing landscape change. Within geography it is primarily economic geographers who have, up until now, shown a keen interest in this concept which stresses the role of social agency and institutions in understanding the de...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geografiska annaler. Series B, Human geography Human geography, 2013-12, Vol.95 (4), p.355-373
Main Author: Zaria, Anita
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agency
Baltic Republics
Bgi / Prodig
Conceptualization
contingency
Economic geography
Economic methodology
Economic theory
Environmental change
Europe
Former USSR
institutional reproduction
Institutions
Landscape
landscape change
Latgale
Latvia
path dependence
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Summary:The notion of path dependence has not yet been well explored as a tool for analysing landscape change. Within geography it is primarily economic geographers who have, up until now, shown a keen interest in this concept which stresses the role of social agency and institutions in understanding the development trajectories of regions. Further, the notion of path dependence usefully captures the idea of contingency in historical sequences. This article presents such a perspective on landscape change analysis, discussing two dominant types of sequences in path-dependent systems. Self-reinforcing sequences characterize the formation and long-term reproduction of a given institutional pattern, while reactive sequences describe chains of temporally ordered and causally connected events. From a landscape point of view, by the former we can describe the fixity of practices, by the latter the particular development of (or changes in) landscapes. Within such a framework of path dependence analysis, examples from south-eastern Latvia, the historical region of Latgale, are used to account for the institution of partible inheritance and to explain its impact on landscapes. The landscape biographies of two villages are studied in order to understand the particular key breaking points and the (series of) reactions that follow from these events. The challenge of using the tool of path dependence analysis lies in its openness for various interpretations, suggesting the need for supplementary theory.
ISSN:0435-3684
1468-0467
DOI:10.1111/geob.12030