One of the most attractive features of the international geographical union commission concerning rural development - of which I am a part - is not just the large number of international friends I have made from all continents, but also the insights the fieldwork aspect has yielded for my own work. Also, I have gained a deeper understanding of how various countries approach their development of rural regions - and there are some big differences between them.
Anyway, after a morning session of paper-giving at the New University of Lisbon, we leapt on board a bus to take us out to the eastern fringe of Lisbon to look at land use conflicts in the jurisdiction of Loures, a local government region that hosted us. Here are some of the images we saw, including a rather lovely cultural event.
The first stop was the council building where we learned a bit about the development conflicts arising where city meets country. Here we are looking at a large plan of the region. And something of the tension emerged when we visited the largish horticultural business pictured. Of course, town and country are competing for water in a region that's dry for critical parts of the year. However, the farm was being a good citizen in capturing, storing, using and re-cycling scarce water.
Country can also power up urban development using renewable sources.
We also visited a local museum that presented a somewhat different battle - Wellington's Peninsula campaign. He was appreciated by the locals for having repulsed the French and finally ejecting them from Portugal and Spain. I tactfully didn't ask my French colleague, Lucette Laurens, what she thought of this exhibit, which somewhat dented La Gloire.
The museum also dealt with the history of wine production locally - and other aspects of production.
And, of course, we headed for a local vineyard - shown here - for an obligatory tasting. We visited so many vineyards that I lost count, both from the number of farms and the several bottles of booze consumed! Perhaps that's unkind. The wines were usually very good.
This vineyard offered some delightful entertainment reflecting traditional local culture performed by whole families dressed in period costumes.
The dancers and musicians performed a wide variety of routines and the little kids played games like leap-frog. Some of our party then joined in, but I remained on the sidelines taking pictures. Of course, my dancing skills are akin to elephants dancing on egg-shells!
Anyway, after a morning session of paper-giving at the New University of Lisbon, we leapt on board a bus to take us out to the eastern fringe of Lisbon to look at land use conflicts in the jurisdiction of Loures, a local government region that hosted us. Here are some of the images we saw, including a rather lovely cultural event.
The first stop was the council building where we learned a bit about the development conflicts arising where city meets country. Here we are looking at a large plan of the region. And something of the tension emerged when we visited the largish horticultural business pictured. Of course, town and country are competing for water in a region that's dry for critical parts of the year. However, the farm was being a good citizen in capturing, storing, using and re-cycling scarce water.
Country can also power up urban development using renewable sources.
We also visited a local museum that presented a somewhat different battle - Wellington's Peninsula campaign. He was appreciated by the locals for having repulsed the French and finally ejecting them from Portugal and Spain. I tactfully didn't ask my French colleague, Lucette Laurens, what she thought of this exhibit, which somewhat dented La Gloire.
The museum also dealt with the history of wine production locally - and other aspects of production.
And, of course, we headed for a local vineyard - shown here - for an obligatory tasting. We visited so many vineyards that I lost count, both from the number of farms and the several bottles of booze consumed! Perhaps that's unkind. The wines were usually very good.
This vineyard offered some delightful entertainment reflecting traditional local culture performed by whole families dressed in period costumes.
The dancers and musicians performed a wide variety of routines and the little kids played games like leap-frog. Some of our party then joined in, but I remained on the sidelines taking pictures. Of course, my dancing skills are akin to elephants dancing on egg-shells!
As evening was approaching we boarded the bus back to Lisbon.
AS
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