Programme

Thy’s coastal village communities were traditionally oriented to the fishing and shipping trades. Today, tourism plays an increasing role in local coastal economies and the fishing industry has transformed into industrialized fishing fleets.

In this region, however, inland farming villages have been less successful in attracting tourism than those by the sea and consequently, social imbalances between farming and coastal communities is a concern here. What are the spatial implications of the growth of tourism in these local coastal environments and cultures? And what futures can be envisioned for the rural communities, places, and practices neighbouring the sea?

Topics in this session may include but are not limited to:

• Communities, places, and practices
• Seaboard villages in transition
• New forms of tourism
• Cultural heritage challenges

Walk and talk 1:

Seaboard villages in transition. Sites to be visited will include the industrial fishing harbour at Hanstholm, the ‘Cold Hawaii’ surfing beach at Klitmøller and the beachside fishing villages of Nørre Vorupør and Stenbjerg.

Tropes that conjoin nature and the rural in a tranquil environment beyond urbanity seem nostalgic nowadays, given the state of flux of the contemporary countryside and the difficulty of distinguishing rural processes from urban and global patterns of consumption. With this, and contemporary trends in rewilding and emerging national nature reserves in mind, should we ask if concepts of nature should now include, for instance, windmill farms and solar parks and other sustainable energy sources that ‘nature’ may be dependent upon?

Do we require more holistic paradigms to understand emergent human-nature and urban-rural relationships? And might such paradigms necessitate a rethinking of the spatial and material characteristics of land management, nature conservation and our engagement with nature?

Topics may include but are not limited to: 

• Planning for climate change resilience and biodiversity
• Rural landscapes, rewilding, and natural reserves
• Architectures of sustainable energy
• Managing human impact on nature and extra human nature*

Walk and talk 3:

Wilderness and windmills. Places to be visited will include the first Danish national park (National Park Thy) the bird sanctuary at Vejlerne, Limfjord and a windmill test center.