The term collective landscape was introduced to landscape design and landscape planning by Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe. He wrote, on the dust jacket of
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Definitions
It appears that the term was inspired by Carl Jung's use of the term collective unconscious. Jellicoe admired Jung, but the use of 'collective landscape' in the above quotation has something in common with its use in collectivism. Unlike the terms public park and national park, the term collective landscape is a psychological construct and an abstract concept.
'Collective landscape' is therefore best understood as a landscape which:
Contemporary applications
In American contemporary landscape architecture the term 'collective landscape' is used to mean 'landscape which matters to the community' as in the following quotation from the Smokey Mountain News for the week of 10/12/05: "The struggle to preserve a collective landscape heritage has been fought and won by the Cherokee once in the past, but is now at risk again."