Protection of the cultural landscape and collective memory as prerequisites for civic education

Abstract

The theme of the cultural landscape and the enhancement of local knowledge and excellence is part of the third line envisaged for the teaching of civic education (sustainable development and knowledge of the territory). By cultural “landscape” we mean that interaction, referred to by two UNESCO Conventions and the European Landscape Convention, between the environment in the physical sense, which includes natural "backgrounds" as well as animal and plant biodiversity, with the cultural narratives that communities have transmitted over time, mainly through the oral tradition. To be valued, this "traditional knowledge" (of lifestyles, symbolic systems, working techniques) requires a concerted effort to strengthen memory (at an individual, collective, local, or global level), a faculty that unfortunately today seems to be in decline even in the context of school.