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Paper short abstract

Based on ethnographic research in Germany’s Middle German Coal District, this paper examines industrial heritage-making as a form of repair, drawing the inspiration from the eco-ethnography and citizen-science approach. The research is part of C-Urge: Anthropology of Global Climate Urgency project.

Paper long abstract

This paper presents a multi-sited (eco)-ethnographic research conducted between 2023 and 2025 in the Middle German Coal District in Saxony Anhalt, Germany. The research explors industrial heritage-making as a form of (urgent) repair under conditions of climate urgency and structural transformations of the region, that are in the line with german coal-exiting policies. Focusing on three specific industrial heritage institutions and regional heritage networks, the paper examines how are practises of preservation, reinvention and coordination of the industrial heritage employed as methods of engaging and navigating the trasnformations of the formely heavily industrial region.

The paper approaches industrial heritage-making as an mode of knowledge production in which non-academic actors (local industrial heritage workers and event organizers) actively participate in sensing, narrating and maintaining the balance between the industrial past, present and future. Eco-ethnographic approach draws attention to notions of care and repair and reveals how climate urgency is negotiated not only through policy or innovation, but also through situated and often slow practices of repair that bring together memory, material remains and new reinventions of industrial heritage of Middle German Coal District.