Publication details
Solving problems and facing crises: the appearance of crisis discourses in forestry in the long 19th century in the Czech lands
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| Year of publication | 2026 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
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| Description | Crises are complex processes that had several manifestations in the long 19th century history as well. Forestry itself was established in times of strong crisis discourses connected to wood shortage and crises have remained in this field for decades and centuries. A crisis in my research is understood as a perceived crisis, a time of perception of problems (Jemelka 2016). Inspired by Kolářský and Suša’s (1998) assertion that a crisis manifests itself through problems but goes beyond them I will consider a crisis discourse in my sources a situation where an urgent need to solve a problem affecting forests and forestry is perceived, and failure to address this problem is presented as leading to irreparable consequences in the future. I will use mainly 19th century printed sources connected to forests and forestry in the Czech lands, such as forestry journals or books and articles related to forests. My goal is to find out how crisis discourses were present in forestry in the Czech lands and thus to achieve a better understanding of 19th-century society with regard to its relationship to forests and forestry. Although my research is at the beginning, some findings already emerged from the analysis. There were some recurrent topics perceived as serious problems or crises related to forests and intensely connected to economy, such as deforestation, forest use and property, or water management in the forests linked to floods and droughts. Such issues were discussed in many papers and places again and again but the problems remained. I find it important to uncover the various interests behind these topics and to question how they affected proposed solutions, strategies or perpetrators. I will conclude the paper by referring to how similar phenomena are present in forest-related debates until today. |
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