Aesthetic heterogeneity on rural landscape: Pathway discrepancy between perception and cognition

The circumstances of contemporary rural tourism have complicated the orientation and interests of stakeholders and transformed people's aesthetic judgment and negotiation on landscapes. Previous studies have revealed the preference variations among stakeholders' cohort individuality; however, few have illustrated how the pathway discrepancy between perception and cognition resulted in the heterogeneity of rural landscape aesthetics. In this research, a tourist village in Southwest China was selected for a case study. A method of structured photographs scale was applied to elicit aesthetic judgment by landscape preference and indicators, as approaches via perception and cognition pathway. Comparative analysis showed that pathway discrepancy can be considered an essential part of the aesthetic heterogeneity mechanism. Based on the results, the authors provide some suggestions on rural landscape governance: (1) the procedure of public participation in landscape assessment ought to take participant's place attachment, epistemology standpoint and demographic features into account to consolidate aesthetic justice; (2) measures for rural landscape improvement should shift the focus from physical landscape to livelihood, lifestyle and other non-gaze essence of rural area; (3) in order to bring aesthetic conflicts to a common ground in tourism development, landscape management should invite different stakeholders to cognize and attach more to the land.