Starting over from the landscape? Iceland between crisis and identity

• Main Author: ZARRILLI, LUCA
• Other Authors: Zarrilli, Luca
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: Iceland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11564/230407

The growing phase of Iceland’s economy, which began after World War II, was brusquely interrupted in October 2008, when the country was brought to the verge of bankruptcy and Icelanders were catapulted in the socalled kreppa: the very serious financial and social crisis with which Icelanders will have to deal in the years to come. The financial crisis, actually, has been producing, in the last two-year period, significant consequences also in terms of domestic politics, international relations, cultural debate and even national identity, in addition to the highly evident economic effects. An exploitation of the advanced skills that Iceland has achieved in areas related to the analysis and the governance of the territory and the landscape could be the response to the crisis from the points of view of environmental sustainability and business diversification. Additionally, it could represent a reaffirmation, as well as a redefinition, of a cultural identity, if we consider the role that landscape – in the widest sense of the word - has been playing in the cultural sphere and in the development policies of this country.