Contemporary Archaeology and the City

This book argues archaeology is uniquely placed to contribute a variety of perspectives on the current life-cycles of cities including processes of decay, revitalization, and transformation. It foregrounds the materialities of post-industrial, post-modern and other urban transformations through a diverse, international collection of case studies.

Contemporary Archaeology and the City foregrounds the archaeological study of post-industrial and other urban transformations through a diverse, international collection of case studies. Over the past decade contemporary archaeology has emerged as a dynamic force for dissecting and contextualizing the material complexities of present-day societies. Contemporary archaeology challenges conventional anthropological and archaeological conceptions of the past by pushing temporal boundaries closer to, if not into, the present.

The volume is organized around three themes that highlight the multifaceted character of urban transitions in present-day cities - creativity, ruination, and political action. The case studies offer comparative perspectives on transformative global urban processes in local contexts through research conducted in the struggling, post-industrial cities of Detroit, Belfast, Indianapolis, Berlin, Liverpool, Belém, and post-Apartheid Cape Town, as well as the thriving urban centres of Melbourne, New York City, London, Chicago, and Istanbul. Together, the volume contributions demonstrate how the contemporary city is an urban palimpsest comprised by archaeological assemblages - of the built environment, the surface, and buried sub-surface - that are traces of the various pasts entangled with one another in the present.

This volume aims to position the city as one of the most important and dynamic arenas for archaeological studies of the contemporary by presenting a range of theoretically-engaged case studies that highlight some of the major issues that the study of contemporary cities pose for archaeologists.

The book points a way forward for scholars studying the very recent past in urban centers around the world. EL Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.

Auteur
Laura McAtackney is an Associate Professor in Sustainable Heritage Management in the Archaeology Department at Aarhus University, Denmark. An archaeologist by training, her current research in contemporary and historical archaeology explores areas as diverse as material segregation and walls in Northern Ireland, the dark heritage of Long Kesh/Maze prison and female experiences of political imprisonment during the Irish Civil War (and how they are remembered during commemorative periods). She is currently the secretary of CHAT (Contemporary and Historical Archaeology in Theory group) and is a co-assistant editor of Post Medieval Archaeology. Krysta Ryzewski is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Wayne State University in Detroit, where she co-leads the Anthropology of the City initiative. Her historical and contemporary archaeological research explores the consequences of social and environmental pressures on landscapes, communities, and material culture production. She currently conducts major research projects focused on these themes in urban North America [Detroit] and in the Caribbean [Montserrat]. In 2017 she received the John L. Cotter Award from the Society for Historical Archaeology for her work on the Unearthing Detroit Project, which she began in 2013. The Unearthing Detroit team maintains a blog and social media accounts that chronicle her ongoing research and collaborations in the city.

Contenu

• Introduction: Contemporary Archaeology and the City: Creativity, Ruination, and Political Action

• SECTION I: CREATIVITY

• 1: Carolyn L. White and Steven Seidenberg: Artist Spaces in Berlin: Defining and Redefining a City through Contemporary Archaeology

• 2: Ian Alden Russell: Cultural Heritage and Political Ecology: A Modest Proposal from Istanbul via Detroit

• 3: Krysta Ryzewski: Making Music in Detroit: Archaeology, Popular Music, and Post-Industrial Heritage

• SECTION II: RUINATION

• 4: Rebecca S. Graff: Embers from the House of Blazes: Fragments, Relics, Ruins of Chicago

• 5: Brian Shanahan and Madeline Shanahan: Commemorating Melbourne's Past: Constructing and Contesting Space, Time, and Public Memory in Contemporary Parkscapes

• 6: April M. Beisaw: Ruined by the Thirst for Urban Prosperity: Contemporary Archaeology of City Water Systems

• 7: Alfredo Gonzalez-Ruibal: Ruins of the South

• SECTION III: POLITICAL ACTION

• 8: Sefryn Penrose: Creative Destruction and Neoliberal Landscapes: Post-industrial Archaeologies Beyond Ruins

• 9: Laura McAtackney: Repercussions of Differential Deindustrialisation in the City: Memory and Identity in Contemporary East Belfast

• 10: Christian Ernsten: A Renaissance with Revenants: Images Gathered from the ruins of Cape Town's Districts One and Six

• 11: Courtney Singleton: Encountering Home: A Contemporary Archaeology of Homelessness

• 12: Paul R. Mullins: The Optimism of Absence: An Archaeology of Displacement, Effacement, and Modernity

• Conclusion

• Index