Started to write down and organize some ideas on my surface mining project. there still is a lot work to do in the archives, but after collecting material for two months and presenting the ideas several times over the last weeks, I feel like it is time to take the effort and start writing - even if it is preliminary only.
My first visit to the Bergbau Bibliothek (Mining Library) in Bochum. I am especially interested in the older periodicals on mining in general and those journals that were issued by specific interests groups of companies engaged in lime or lignite mining. I still have to look out for scientific journals on mining engineering and geology - I haven’t yet gotten a good overview over those.
Coming back to the outline for my current project. Seen with some distance after a first inquiry into primary sources and many discussions I am considerably optimizing the outline. I was troubled, because many people told me that surface mining was not “sexy”. Well, it isn’t necessarily. But if you are intrigued by the relation between practices and materiality it is just a great example to highlight the many facets of that relationship. Therefore, I am repackaging my project - it works quite well so far.
My second reply to a Call for Papers today…
This time it is for a conference to be held in Bochum this November entitled “Industrialisierung in europäischen Regionen”. I thought it would be a nice occasion to get some ideas and some feedback for my upcoming project on surface mining. I really liked the suggestion of the conference organizers to compare “regions” and proposed a paper that defines these industrializing “regions” through the physical qualities of their underground.
