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Paper short abstract:

Empirical perspectives on the transition of the Rhenish Mining Area will explore the relationship between humans and landscapes. People, in a material sense as well as in an imaginary sense, produce landscapes. Therefore, the connection with the present, past and ambivalent futures will be examined.

Paper long abstract:

With the decision to antedate the end of opencast coal mining in the Rhenish Mining Area to the year of 2030, people who were part of the last resettlement process in favour of the lignite mining are facing the end of an intergenerational struggle for belonging, heritage and parting processes. Lignite Mining has changed the appearance of the region tremendously: large holes where dug in the region, migrating from south to north, forcing residents to change their location of settlement. Despite the new decision, the landscape is still subject to many changes: the future of the last villages that the mining company will no longer use has to be planned. People have to cope with changing images of their surroundings.

The perspective on the landscape is twofold: not only the real space changes, but also the cognitive space, the imaginary space of the landscape. With Kühne and Schönwald (2017:192), I understand landscapes not only as a material space. Landscapes are based on social and cultural constructions and are thus created by people. I therefore understand landscape as a conglomerate of perspectives and in relation between humans and nature. Living in a special surrounding influences everyday life. Looking back at the past enables to find examples of how to cope with the present.

The planning of the future can convey the individual relationship between humans and nature. It can help to understand the current situation and to produce or reproduce new markers of ambivalent (un)certainties.