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Accepted Paper:
Of cheap labor and nature: a history of spruce trees in Austria
Laura Plochberger
(University of Vienna, Austria)
Connecting key events in the history of spruce trees within the last 600 years to the history of land ownership and labor rights within central Austria, this paper looks at the multi-faceted history of spruce trees and their connection to different phases of Capitalism.
Paper Abstract:
The paper illustrates key events in the history of Austrian spruce trees over the last 600 years. Arguing for a look back further in time than most contemporary theories working on the topic propose, it encourages to view the histories of Austrian spruce trees as neither rooted just in the last 200 years nor apolitical. Tracing the interconnection of changes in forests with the fight for labor rights and land ownership it argues that the history of trees is far from being apolitical and, in fact, is a result of historical processes spanning through the different phases of capitalism.
In an interconnected world where national states frame the so-called-health of forests as purely a matter of a more mindful individual choice of forestry strategies the present racist structuring within the Austrian forestry sector is largely ignored.