Paper short abstract:

This paper uses the ruins of abandoned farm fields as a space to contemplate (over)growth and the effects of land use policy on how the material reality of ruralness changes together with its perception of conservation, productive space, and social value.

Paper long abstract:

Ruins are the material and social consequences of wider processes; they are sites of what once was and sites of continued habitation and imagination. As such ruins stand between present and past, binding change to single locality where the consequences of economic, social, or political processes manifest in the lives of those who live within them. This paper will contemplate the space of abandoned farm fields in southwest Ireland as bureaucratic and economic ruins. In this case study, the claims for abandonment revolve around onerous land use policy, conservation initiatives, and aging farm families. Once abandoned, fields are overtaken by thick reeds and water, altering the material and cultural landscape. These ruins are then reimagined by locals and planners in binaries, as detrimental to or beneficial for local biodiversity; as natural vitality or social degradation; as future possibility or past failure. Meanwhile, they are lived sites of habitation for human and non-human beings and are the physical consequences of legislative decision making in far off places. What do these rural ruins signify materially and socially, and how can tracing these sites back to their bureaucratic origins help us understand the unmaking and remaking of rural livelihood in a way that privileges the spaces of daily life?