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Having clarified the peculiar world of landscape policies, we can concentrate more directly on how the narrative of European identity is used and interpreted, when it is, by people affected by these emerging policies. Like many other European initiatives, we have seen how the ELC is the result of dozens of documents and meetings, several subsequent drafts and public presentations, formal and informal expert consultations, before and after its signature. This repetition contributes to making it relevant, for as well as being a legal instrument the ELC is about spreading a "language", which is a language of identity. Needless to say, there is always some "urgent cause", for instance, the decay of the rural landscape leading to wider reflection on landscape and what brings about its transformation, here legitimated by the 'social demand" of its solution. However, an underlying outcome and objective is building a "community", the networking itself, which stands as a practical demonstration and legitimization of the Europeanization it propounds. This symbolic relevance has very tangible results, which we can now follow more closely by focusing on how the ELC's interpretation by different actors is incorporated in initiatives that are meant to "implement" or experiment with it.

DOI: 10.1057/9780230250437_7

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