Community Practices and Social Capital in Cultural Landscape

We explore the potential of community practices in managing common resources associated with rural or urban cultural landscapes (e.g. common land). We are interested in the relationship between the (local) community and the cultural landscape or functional area in which it operates, for example in the form of food production, conservation of the cultural landscape, management of the commons, etc. We are looking at how such communities or social networks are formed and how they function, and in which segments they contribute to the management and maintenance of cultural landscapes. We anticipate that understanding the mechanisms of such community practices will help in adapting to environmental and economic challenges, and in particular in providing diverse ecosystem services that improve the quality of life of inhabitants and that, although taken for granted, are rapidly eroding in a highly technological and productivity-driven world.

List of notable achievements in the last three years:

• Šmid Hribar, M., Hori, K., Urbanc, M., Saito, O., Zorn, M. 2023: Evolution and new potentials of landscape commons: insights from Japan and Slovenia. Ecosystem services 59, 101499.
• Tucker, C., Šmid Hribar, M., Urbanc, M., Bogataj, N., Gunya, A., Rodela, R., Sigura, M., Piani, L. 2023: Governance of interdependent ecosystem services and common-pool resources. Land Use Policy 127, 106575.
• Šmid Hribar, M., Urbanc, M., Zorn, M. 2023: Commons and their contribution to sustaining Slovenian cultural landscapes. Acta Geographica Slovenica 63-3.
• Razpotnik Visković, N., Logar, E. 2022: Certification, labelling and branding in tourism research: systematic review. Acta geographica Slovenica 62-2.
• Šmid Hribar, M., Razpotnik Visković, N., Bole, D. 2021: Models of stakeholder collaboration in food tourism experiences. Acta geographica Slovenica 61-1.

List of research projects in the last three years:

• SELINA - Science for Evidence-based and sustainabLe decisIons about NAtural capital (European research project, 2022-2027, leader at the Institute: dr. Mateja Šmid Hribar and dr. Primož Pipan)
• SHARED GREEN DEAL (European research project, 2022-2027, leader at the Institute: dr. Mateja Šmid Hribar)  
• Research on the Management of Common Lands in Portugal  (research project in time of study exchange of Daniela Rebiero, 2023)
• MadeInTheAlps - (applicative project, 2022-2023, leader at the Institute: dr. Erik Logar)
• NatGuidES - (applied project, 10/2021–9/2023, leader: dr. Mateja Šmid Hribar)
• Sustainable landscape management: From science to action (podoctoral research project, 7/2019-3/2023, leader: dr. Daniela Ribeiro)
• ECOVINEGOALS - (INTERREG, 3/2020–9/2022, leader at the Institute: dr. Mateja Šmid Hribar and dr. Primož Pipan)
• 100 % Local (applicative research project, 08/2019 - 01/2021, leader at the Institute: dr. Erik Logar) 

Gallery:

Picture 1: Mountain pasture at Uskovnica, managed by the agrarian community of Srednja vas.

Picture 2: Creative laboratory Krater in the urban area of Ljubljana.

Picture 3: Marketing projects for locally produced food.

Picture 4: Restoration of a dry stone wall in Kosovelje, with the participation of locals under the guidance of a master.