Transitions towards landscape- and heritage-centred local development strategies: A Multi-Level Perspective

At the beginning of the new century, the European Landscape Convention (ELC) marked a paradigm shift in the conception of landscape, which is now conceived of as a common good and of crucial importance to people’s everyday lives. A challenge is thus to find new approaches and tools to make the new concept translated into practice. The paper employs the Multi Level Perspective (MLP) to analyse transition pathways towards innovative forms of landscape management. In contrast with a linear conception of innovation, the use of this framework enables the authors to show nested and bi-directional dynamics of change across multiple levels and the interactions between different sectors/actors: governance and policy, professionals and public administration, grassroots organizations, citizens, market, industry. The paper focuses on the way new concepts and tools for landscape protection and improvement have been spread into planning practice in the Apulia region through the development of the new Territorial Landscape Plan (TLP). In the analysis, a particular attention is paid to the way innovative forms of management of landscape are actually mobilized, supported and given long-term perspectives, while resistance to change is lowered throughout the development and the implementation of the plan.