A generous coexistence - Municipal planning for nature preservation and collaborative survival in Denmark

A generous coexistence

Municipal planning for nature preservation and collaborative survival in Denmark

The crisis of the Anthropocene calls for an investigation of how to extend human empathy to the more-than-human. This project explores how to make space for the more-than-human in the physical landscape and in the human/planners consciousness through a municipal strategy. It is a vision for sharing territory and making kin in a generous coexistence where nature and culture merge - as in witchcraft

The climate and the biodiversity crisis can be seen as two consequences of the crisis of the anthropocene. Humans situated in the anthropocentric worldview, has for a long time understood nature as for human to master and exploit, leading to today’s crisis with nature catastrophes and extinction of species etc. This calls for another perception of nature.

To foster a new perception of nature, it is necessary to situate nature in human culture and vice versa and make opportunities for collaborative survival. In line with this, it is crucial to physically make more space for nature to unfold. 

Ringkøbing-Skjern municipality, on the westcoast of Denmark, is a municipality with potentials and ambitions towards planning for nature preservation. This project aims to take the initial thoughts and current methods even further, with the ambition to question status quo.

This project explores a municipal strategy for nature preservation in Ringkøbing-Skjern and what aspects to prioritize at areas of conflicting interests while using witchcraft as an analogy for a methodological scope that is able to mediate between nature/culture and more-than-human/human.