Interrogating Legacies of Industry: Industrial Ruins and the Creative Destruction of Capitalism

Summary

How do we interpret and reconcile meaning related to the creative destruction of capitalism?  That is, the basic tension that exists between the awe-inspiring power of capitalist production and the disdain inspiring proclivity for endless accumulation/consumption.  How can we rectify the many beneficial outcomes of global industrialization with the externalized costs (for some) that are now coming due (for all)?  Archaeological methodologies and theoretical models are particularly suited to linking and interpreting social behavior past, present, and future through the lens of the site.  Localized environmental change and landscape biographies/archaeologies provide insight into larger processes/perceptions, and the complex and often contradictory nature/place of industry and industrially induced change in contemporary dialogue.  The archaeological site serves as the grounds for "ethnographic study" (archaeology as participant observation of the "archaeological other") and the interplay between evolving understandings of "cultural" and "natural" resources and how they serve to (re)contextualize the legacy of industry.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Post-industrial Landscapes, Communities, and Heritage   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2018

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 763