Cultural landscapes of energy : constructing histories of power, prosperity, and decline in Europe / edited by Corinne Geering and Torsten Meyer.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Geering, Corinne, editor.

Meyer, Torsten, 1964- editor.

Series:

Critical Heritages of Europe Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Energy industries.

Energy industries--Environmental aspects--Europe.

Energy industries--Social aspects--Europe.

Energy transition--Environmental aspects--Europe.

Energy transition.

Cultural landscapes--Europe.

Cultural landscapes.

Landscape architecture--Europe.

Landscape architecture.

Europe--Environmental conditions.

Europe.

Genre:

Case studies

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xviii, 273 pages) : illustrations.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

London : Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2026.

Summary:

"This volume explores the contested heritage of landscapes impacted by energy production. It offers a comparative perspective across Europe on different energy resources and reveals the hidden histories behind current efforts to revalorise the industrial heritage of energy production. Including case studies from across the European continent, this volume adds a crucial historical perspective to current debates on energy transition and the future of Europe’s landscapes, which have been deeply impacted by energy production. Coal mining, oil drilling, peat extraction, and the construction of large-scale infrastructure, such as dams, have shaped ‘cultural landscapes of energy’ in present-day Europe. The exploitation of natural resources served economic development and established new industrial work cultures, but it also destroyed settlements through excavation and flooding. This volume brings together conflicting histories around work, habitation, and leisure in contemporary landscapes across Europe. Drawing on archival records, interviews, and fieldwork, the chapters in this volume combine perspectives on the productive and destructive sides of energy. They address the tensions emerging from heritage-making processes, which focus on the end of energy production despite ongoing and future commissioning projects. This volume contributes new insights to the fields of energy and environmental history, heritage studies, memory studies, landscape architecture, and sustainability science. It provides rich materials on energy landscapes across Europe for researchers as well as policymakers and practitioners interested in energy transition, (post-)industrial heritage, and cultural tourism.2-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Cover

Endorsement

Half Title

Series Information

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Table of Contents

List of Figures

List of Table

List of Contributors

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Cultural Landscapes of Energy and the Conflicting Temporalities of Energy Transition

How Energy Shapes Landscapes: Productive and Destructive Histories

Heritage-Making: Conflicting Pasts, Presents, and Futures of Energy

Creating, Living With, and Sharing Landscapes

Notes

Bibliography

Part 1 Creating Energy Landscapes

1 The Cultural Construction of a Hydroelectric Landscape: The Project of Lake Sihl in Switzerland, 1897-1937

The Case of Lake Sihl

The Inception of a Landscape Idea

The Landscape of Experts

From Words to Images: Depictions of the Reservoir

Contestations of a Landscape Idea

The Life of a Landscape Idea

Conclusion

2 Land of Fire, Temples of Extraction: Azerbaijan's Geo-Architectural Assemblage of Oil and Nation

Resource Nationalism in an Urban Energy Landscape

Fire Symbolism and Early Industrialisation On the Abşeron Peninsula

Soviet Geo-Architectural Assemblage

The Post-Soviet Urban Landscape

3 Energy Transition as Cultural Trauma: The Making and Unmaking of the Finnish Peat Industry

The Making of a 'Traditional' Energy Source

From 'National Treasure' to Climate Villain

The Downward Spiral

Reimagining Peat(lands)

Part 2 Living With Energy Landscapes

4 Northern Scotland's Late Oil-Fuelled Industrialisation: Labour Mobility and Community Transformation Since the 1970s

The Influx of Capital and Labour

Absorption and Change

Bibliography.

5 The Cultural Landscapes of Dam Building in Switzerland: Secondary Infrastructure and Its Territorial Archive at the Grande Dixence Dam, 1950-1965

Construction of the Large Dams of Valais

The Taskscape of Dam Building

Secondary Infrastructure as the Lived Space of Workers

The Territorial Archive of the Secondary Infrastructure

6 Erasure as Heritage: Two Villages Between Restoration and Destruction On an East German Lignite Moonscape

Eythra

Mölbis

Part 3 Sharing Energy Landscapes

7 A Post-Industrial 'Adventure Land?': Challenges for Cultural Tourism Development in the Estonian Oil Shale Region

Oil Shale (Waste)lands

Industrial Landscapes as Heritage

Adventure Land: Visions for Sustainable Development

Revival of Post-Industrial Complexes Through Tourism

8 Curating a Future for Coal and Petrochemicals: Ruhrkohle AG's Corporate Influence On the Zeche Zollverein Heritage Site

Energy and Political Economy in West Germany

The End of the Mines and the Dawn of Heritage

Planning the Exhibition

A Semi-Sustainable Transition

Fossil Present

9 Representing What Has Been Destroyed: The Sunken Island of Ada Kaleh in Museums of the Iron Gates Region in Romania

A Sunken Island

Resurfacing of a Destroyed Past

Untold Stories and Unfinished Business

10 Integrating Minority Perspectives Into the Heritagisation of Post-Mining Landscapes in Lusatia, Germany

Lusatia, the Lausitzer Revier, and the Sorbian Settlement Area

The 'Minority Issue' in Lusatian's Post-Mining Heritage

Participative Heritagisation: Discussion and Outlook

Concluding Remarks: Landscapes and Energyscapes

Whose Landscape? People and Place

The Many Scapes

Energy Systems and Energy Transition

Energy Landscapes as Sacrifice Zones

The Politics of Energy Landscapes

Index.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-04-063930-5

1-04-050945-2

1-003-47353-9

9781003473534

OCLC:

1564378562

Publisher Number:

CIPO000317754