Paper short abstract:

On the example lignite mining and the Sorbian minority in Lusatia (Germany), we will provide and discuss a concept of post-mining landscapes as practices of past presencing and therefore coping mechanisms to face new uncertainties within transformation processes.

Paper long abstract:

The region of Lusatia is characterised by a permanent state of uncertainty – from decades of mining-related resettlements, transformation processes due to the German Reunification, up to the planned end of lignite mining in 2030. Taking into account, that here, mining took place in the settlement area of the autochthonous minority of the Sorbs/Wends, we would like to discuss a minority-sensitive concept of post-mining landscapes and the presencing of their pasts, which sensitises for:

(1) the challenges of recultivation (e.g. post-mining lakes). This aspect is highly linked to the discursive understanding of the landscape as a place of technological innovation but also uncertainties (e.g. resilient water management);

(2) the transition of people, networks, cultural practices and architecture due to resettlement and working migration. In Lusatia, this aspect is highly linked to the negotiation of minority rights, the construction of ethnicity and protest movements;

(3) the entanglements of pre- and post-industrial land uses, which are still mostly negotiated as opposites (e.g. “industrial culture” and “Sorbian cultural heritage”);

(4) practices of memory – especially memorial sites, place naming (e.g. street names of devastated villages) and commemorative activities.

Since the planned end of lignite mining, historicising perspectives – such as a World Heritage initiative – are gaining in importance, leading to a new conceptualisation of the post-mining landscape mainly as a practice of past presencing itself, functioning as a coping mechanism to face new uncertainties and therefore, becoming a new action arena for the negotiation of regional identity, belonging and power structures.