The province that disappeared up in smoke

The fire in Västmanland did not only cause material and financial damage, it also removed places that had become stuck in people’s memories.

The forest fire of August/September 2014 that started  in Sala rural district and caused widespread damage in the neighbouring  districts of Norberg, Fagersta and Surahammar has drastically changed  the character of the landscape in the area.

”There  is almost no research connected to landscape that is changed in this  way”, says Igor Knez memory researcher at Gävle University.

Together  with five researchers from the Swedish University of Agricultural  Sciences he has got SEK 4 million from Formas (the Swedish Research  Council) to investigate how identity, that is connected to the  landscape, has been affected for those people who, before the fire,  regarded the damaged area as their normal landscape.

A place to which memories become attached

A  landscape’s identity can be said to have the same significance that our  surroundings have for who we are. It develops over time through  people’s relationship to the landscape surrounding them that becomes a  place to which memories are attached.

The fire has thereby not only caused material and economical damage but also created existential losses.

That which remains

In  the study researchers want to investigate what remains of the identity -  in its relation to the landscape after the fire - and how this can be  used as a base for decision-making for the future of the affected area.

The  research group is interdisciplinary and consists of an environmental  communicator, a psychologist and a landscape architect. The  interdisciplinary structure will contribute towards developing a greater  understanding for this subject.

Three year study

The  three year study is aimed at attaining a greater knowledge of the  identity that is tied to the landscape of the forest fire both before  and after the event.

• What was important in the landscape before the fire?
• What is left of that which was important?
• Can it be recreated?

“After  the Second World war many cities in Europe were rebuilt to look exactly  like they were before their destruction, so that people could regain  their identity and their history”, says Igor Knez.

For more information please contact:
Igor Knez, Professor of Psychology, Gävle University
Tel.: 648111
E-mail: igor.knez@hig.se

By: Douglas Öhrbom