Scars of time: layered landscapes and valuation processes in a postindustrial site of the Catalan Pyrenees
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Postindustrial sites have garnered significant attention in the social sciences and humanities, particularly concerning the complexities of their abandonment. This article contributes to these debates by empirically examining the processes of valuation within the dynamics of abandonment, restoration, and resignification, with a focus on the Berguedà region in the Catalan Pyrenees. Specifically, we trace the landscape transformations caused by open-pit coal mining, analysing how exposed excavation walls have revealed unique fossils that prompt a revaluation of the destructive effects of coal extraction. We demonstrate how these fossils can be understood as both natural and social, allowing for a geological reading of the landscape alongside an incisive historical one. As scars, they not only reveal diverse geological sediment layers but also offer insightful perspectives on the complex and shifting processes of valuation, devaluation, and revaluation that co-shape postindustrial landscapes.
Source: Landscape Research
Authors: Anna Clot-Garrell, Natàlia Cantó-Milà
Language: English
Subfield: Cultural Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4416104363