Raamatuarvustus: Patrick J. Dillon. Cultural Ecologies of the Land: A Restless Dynamic of People and Place. Routledge, 2025 / Review: Patrick J. Dillon. Cultural Ecologies of the Land: A Restless Dynamic of People and Place. Routledge, 2025

Abstract

This book provides a compelling framework for understanding land as the result of human agency, infrastructure and vernacular practices. Organised into three sections — “Framework”, “Living in the Land” and “Regeneration” — the book concludes with a reflective postscript. These parts are bound together by a focus on how people ‘make sense’ of situations through situated action, and how such action can regenerate relationships with place.

Dillon’s key contribution to craft studies is his positioning of craft as an ecological practice. In the chapters “Making a Living” and “Making Place”, crafting emerges as an embodied form of sensemaking that considers the possibilities afforded by local materials and conditions. The concluding chapters on governance and education translate these insights into proposals for institutional arrangements and curricula that recognise and support the transmission of embodied knowledge across generations.

Dillon draws on his extensive expertise in cultural ecology and his trans disciplinary career. He is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Exeter and has held long-term professorial roles in Finland. His previous Studia Vernacula publications on crafts include comparative studies of textile crafts in Cyprus, Estonia and Peru as well as circular economies and regeneration of land, craft and biodiversity. Notably, Dillon has served on the international editorial advisory board of Studia Vernacula, aligning the book’s concerns with the journal’s mission to foreground vernacular knowledge as a dynamic, adaptive tradition.

Although the book’s focus is not solely on crafts, Cultural Ecologies of the Land invites craft researchers and practitioners to contribute to regeneration through their everyday work of making and caring for place. For the readership of Studia Vernacula, it offers both theoretical depth and practical insight, reinforcing the journal’s commitment to exploring craft as a vital cultural force.