On the Surface: The Heritage of Mines and Mining

14-16 April 2011, Innsbruck, Austria



From pre-historic times to the present, the Earth has been mined for a
vast variety of minerals and geological materials. The metals and stones
extracted from under the earth's surface have defined historical
periods, helped to create towns and cities, stimulated economies,
patterned international trade routes, been at the centre of conflicts,
have shaped communities and have permeated a great deal of social and
cultural life. From simple holes in the ground to vast industrial
underground and overground complexes, and from coal to diamonds, mining
has shaped landscapes and lives.



When resources run out, or when the costs of extraction have become
prohibitive, mines close and we are left not only with the physical
structures of mining but with extensive social, cultural and
environmental legacies. Within the developed world, the transition from
productive to consumptive economies continues to raise questions not
only about how we deal with the material remains of mining, but with the
processes of social and economic change and with more intangible notions
of collective memory forged in human activities underground.



The focus of this conference is upon the heritage of mining and the
extractive industries; the physical sites and the social legacies left
on the Earth's surface. Some former mines, mining landscapes and
communities have gained heritage status and have become popular tourist
attractions while others lie abandoned as pertinent and problematic
markers of a changed world. This international, multidisciplinary
conference seeks to critically examine the powerful and on-going
fascination with mining and how mining heritage now plays an important
role in wider agendas of economic and cultural development.



The Centre for Tourism and Cultural Change, Leeds Metropolitan
University UK, in partnership with the Department of History and
European Ethnology, University of Innsbruck, Austria, welcome abstracts
from a variety of disciplines and fields including: architecture, art
history, history, sociology, anthropology, ethnology, cultural studies,
geography, tourism studies, museum studies, archaeology, ethnology,
linguistics and economics. Indicative themes of interest to the
Conference include:



*         Histories and ethnographies of former mining communities

*         Issues of preserving and managing mining heritage sites

*         Mining for tourists - visitor experiences of mining heritage

*         Interpreting and representing former mining activity

*         Legacies and linkages with the contemporary mining sector

*         Mining labour - mobilities and mining diaspora

*         Memory, identity and belonging in former mining communities

*         The languages of mining communities

Please submit a 300 word abstract including title and full contact
details as an electronic file to ctcc@leedsmet.ac.uk. You may submit
your abstract as soon as possible but no later than December 17th 2010.


The conference is of course also open to non-presenting delegates.


For further details on the conference please visit the conference's page
at http://www.tourism-culture.com/news_2.html
<http://www.tourism-culture.com/news_2.html>

Or email us at ctcc@leedsmet.ac.uk <mailto:ctcc@leedsmet.ac.uk>

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Daniela Carl

Centre for Tourism and Cultural Change
Leeds Metropolitan University
Old School Board
Calverley Street
Leeds LS1 3ED
UK

phone +44 (0)113- 812 8541

fax +44 (0)113- 812 8544

www.tourism-culture.com