Preferred and Actual Futures: Young People's Landscape Views of the UK

This paper draws on 'views and visions' responses collected at the time of the Land Use-UK project in 1996. Surveyors were groups of school children with contributions in more remote locations from adults. As well as mapping the landscape participants were asked about their hopes and visions for the grid squares surveyed. One kilometre squares were identified by stratified random sampling techniques from the Ordnance Survey National Grid. The responses indicated varying levels of optimism and pessimism. The sample of responses in this paper relates to rural key squares (N = 424) and urban key squares (N = 413). Young surveyors appeared to be the most pessimistic and there was some correlation of increasing pessimism with increasing land use intensity.