Management styles and knowledge cultures, past, present and future, related to multiple-use and urban woodlands

This paper is based on interviews with fifteen professionals within ecology, forestry and park and landscape architecture. The interviewees are believed to have had a large influence on woodland planning in Sweden between 1950 and 2000. They have won recognition because of their ability to transform theoretical knowledge into practical action. Their work is translating theory into practice and, as such, it may be regarded as art in its deepest sense. During a long period the educational system as well as the dominating research has been concentrating on providing better facts in a search for the best knowledge, high degrees of generality and objectivity. However, this may cause many disadvantages. It has lead to a standardisation and an oversimplification of knowledge and thereby also to an oversimplification of the landscape. This study is based on a humanistic approach, on theory of knowledge, of how facts coming from the world of natural sciences can be encapsulated in daily woodland management.