Rewild, reset, restore: abandonment in postmining landscapes

Abstract

This paper develops a conceptual perspective on abandonment as a relational and more-than-human condition, shaped by entanglements between ecological processes, socio-technical infrastructures, and legal obligations. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in the Central German Mining District, it explores how postmining landscapes remain under partial control even after extraction ends. Through two ethnographic scenes, the analysis shows that what appears abandoned is often sustained by hidden hydrological systems, deferred legal decisions, and multispecies interactions. Introducing the concept of latent abandonment, the paper highlights the temporal ambiguity and infrastructural dependencies that hold these landscapes in suspension. Rather than a linear transition from extraction to restoration, abandonment emerges as managed indeterminacy–a space-time where human and non-human agencies co-produce dynamic terrains. The paper contributes to more-than-human geography and post-industrial studies by offering a nuanced account of how abandonment unfolds beyond binaries of control and decay.

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