Landscapes in Dispute, Territorial Futures: Restitution and Reparation in the Face of Enclosure, Industrialization, and Extractivism

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Landscapes in Dispute, Territorial Futures: Restitution and Reparation in the Face of Enclosure, Industrialization, and Extractivism," at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

We propose a critical discussion of marginalized territories and local populations disrupted by enclosure, industrialization, and extraction of resources (natural, cultural and/or epistemic). Using a perspective that merges historical archaeology, political history, sociocultural anthropology, and critical geography, we consider the historical origins of extractive industries and infrastructures and with their enduring legacies. We ask, how might frameworks of restitution and reparation apply to the territories and communities affected, as well as to the social and natural sciences which have both participated in acts of dispossession, and yet still offer possibilities for collaborative social action? We discuss a range of case studies from the Americas, moving beyond national boundaries and North/South divisions. The session includes global perspectives on imagined futures based on local agendas of Indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants, peasant communities, migrant workers, and social organizations. We trace critical histories of contested landscapes to articulate our human futures within wider nonhuman worlds.