Julia Hoffmann
Natalie Sontopski
What we want to do together
Saxony-Anhalt was the heartland of GDR’s industrial efforts and we can still find the ruins of the former chemical industry and brown coal extraction which is still active today. Still, Saxony-Anhalt’s identity as an industrial hub persists. The chemical industry park Leuna unites national and international chemical industry companies on its grounds, and the establishment of a lithium mine is currently in its planning stages. However, efforts have been made to transform the region towards a greener future. Former coal mines are being flooded and used as a recreational area, and the beaver population successfully inhabits the manifold bodies of water and hikers. As former mining regions undergo revitalization, the question arises: are more-than-human entities taken into consideration or are we repeating mistakes in shaping our landscapes? The marginal role more-than-human entities currently play necessitates a critical exploration to identify strategic leverage points to influence policy and public perception.
Who are we looking for?
Our aim for this case is to develop a toolkit comprising methods and materials that address practical experiences by participants. The toolkit will facilitate a nuanced understanding of the characteristics and stakeholders present in Saxony-Anhalt and similar landscapes, and provide actionable interventions. Therefore, we like to invite researchers and practitioners across disciplines to participate, and share their tools, experiences and methods with each other. If you feel drawn to this case and are interested in a practice-based research and methods, please join us and spend the day with us! We specifically encourage participants with an interdisciplinary mindset, and comparable cases as well as an interest in the more-than-human entanglements of the anthropocene. We plan for a small group of approx. 15-20 participants.
To take part, please send a short (max. 500-600 words) text to julia.hoffmann@hs-anhalt.de where you outline your field of research, what draws you to this case, and if you would like to contribute experiences or tools from a comparable case.
What our day together will look like
We plan our case as a one-day exploration with the chance to plant the foundations for a future network of toolkit collaborators. We will start with a morning session where each participant has the chance to briefly present a comparable case they are working on, a research interest or a method or tool which might benefit this case. After that we will get acquainted with the case by outlining challenges for researchers and identifying the role of different tools and methods.
After our lunch break, we will split up in small group to work on the shared toolkit. Here, participants have the chance to share and collect, experiment with different tools, and contribute their own tools and methods and connect them to our case. Finally, after a short coffee break, we will come together again to present our findings, put together the toolkit and discuss future steps for our work.