This contribution explores humans-animals cohabitations of two sites of ore extraction:
1. Malmberget, a mining town in Sweden, is disappearing due to the enlargement of the underground mining cavities. In the middle of the town, a 250-m-deep sinkhole which is steadily growing, splits the town which is constantly dismantled. The area around the sinkhole is fenced off, and the houses are dismantled.
2. Erzberg afoot the mountain of Eisenerz is also losing human inhabitants due to the diminishing workforce of the mine. Iron ore is extracted from the mountain which therefore took on the shape of a pyramid. Access to the area is restricted.
My active participatory observations in the more-than-human communities follow humans to leave the areas, but also nonhuman animals to come back to them. Sometimes, the nonhumans use the abandoned and fenced-off, for humans inaccessible areas as a space protected from human disruption. Along the lines which separate industrial zones of extraction from the zones of the surrounding societies, interesting human-animal interactions take place, for example when birds use the houses under deconstruction in Malmberget, or, further nonhuman animals use the industrial zones for their retreat. Thus, I want to specify their use, spatial agencies and the sites’ meanings for imaginations for the respective human societies in crises – through learnings from long-term participatory activities in the communities, conversations, observation and documentation.
Mots clés : extraction|industrial zones|more-than-human communities|participatory observation|spatial practices of care
A105467KR