Paper short abstract:

This paper explores past, present and future landscapes on Svalbard archipelago, where a socio-economic transformation to post-mining industries is taking place. This transformation is understood as a process of shifting relations with the landscape and its constituents.

Paper long abstract:

The landscape of the Svalbard archipelago is currently facing a significant transformation. What was in the past century predominantly a place of coal mining is shifting into a place of tourism and research. This paper aims to understand this socio-economic transformation as a transformation of relations with the landscape and its constituents. The entry point for understanding this transformation is coal mining remnants, classified as cultural heritage – a protected part of the landscape. These can be seemingly marginal, insignificant or even out-of-place objects, such as rusty barrels, wires or collapsing transportation systems. Cultural heritage are then not just remnants of the past but part of entangled relations between various constituents of the landscape, including both humans and non-humans. In such relations, the past as well as present landscapes are encountered and re-configured.