Heritage for the Future: Narrating Abandoned Mining SitesShow others and affiliations
2022 (English)In: Resource Extraction and Arctic Communities: The New Extractivist Paradigm / [ed] Sverker Sörlin, Cambridge University Press, 2022, p. 206-228Chapter in book (Other academic)
Abstract [en]
This chapter compares the post-extraction dynamics of two mining regions in the Fennoscandinavian Arctic: the Pite valley, Sweden, and Kolari, Finland. In 1946 the Swedish mining company Boliden closed a mine in Laver, which became a ghost town. Decades later, state authorities tried to turn Laver into a cultural heritage site. Boliden joined the effort to support its plan to re-start mining at Laver, a project that has, however, become highly controversial. The Finnish case deals with a similar controversy. Hannukainen mining company wants to re-open an iron ore mine that was in operation 1975-1990. As part of their strategy to gain acceptance for re-opening, the company and supporters of the project have mobilized the history of the mining sites and argues mining is a core element of the heritage of the Kolar municipality. Both cases have generated tension regarding the type of history and heritage of these regions: those of reindeer herding by Sámi and other local communities, or that of extractive industries? The cases show that heritage making can be useful, but it can also be a source of conflict, further underscoring the importance of the long-term view of extraction.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Cambridge University Press, 2022. p. 206-228
Keywords [en]
conflicts, cultural and industrial heritage, Hannukainen, Heritage making, Laver, narratives, resistance
National Category
Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified
Research subject
History
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-94841DOI: 10.1017/9781009110044.016OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ltu-94841DiVA, id: diva2:1718736
Note
Funder: University of Oulu & the Academy of Finland Profi4 (318930 Arctic Interactions);
ISBN for host publication: 9781009110044
2022-12-132022-12-132022-12-13Bibliographically approved