Theme:
1. Archaeologists and Archaeology Here and Now
Session format:
Regular session
Title:
Presentism and the Archaeologies of the Present: Engaged Practices and Methodologies
Content:
This Session aims to be a space for exchanging ideas and experiences from the increasing number of archaeological researchers of recent times, including Archaeology of the Contemporary Past, Industrial Heritage and Heritage Management. Archaeology offers concrete and situated knowledge about the plurality of temporal tensions in our current contested present. It helps to articulate different approaches when the historical discourse is not enough against epistemological populism. However, in this scenario, seasoned by a pandemic, understanding its challenges is more interesting than debating its labels.
Which are the historical conditions of our present? The Great Recession of 2008 extended and intensified the coercive nature of capitalism in different parts of the world. The neoliberal policies already displayed in the 70s were reinforced and doubled through austerity plans, implying the accelerated end of the so-called “slow cancellation of the future”. Since then, it has been said that we live in a new historical regime called presentism, where the past and the future melts into the present. At the same time this “broad present” coexists with the negationism of history which can lead to anti-democratic regimes. How can we make diagnostics and propositions to combat the reification of the present in such a context? We propose to answer this question through practices from shared
interdisciplinary scenarios, where there is room for exchanges of perspectives and areas of work between different stakeholders. This session proposes an open forum to co-create knowledge on the subject of:
1) Interdisciplinary projects committed to the socio-economic challenges of the territories and actions for change.
2) Archaeological projects on deep economic and industrial landscape transformations, whether in rural or urban areas.
3) Different research on the process of expansion of inequalities and alternative forms of resistance by communities.
4) Studies on contemporary heritage sites or assemblages.
Keywords:
Archaeology of the Present, Contemporary Past, Industrial Heritage, Anti-Austerity Archaeology, Archaeological Theory
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:
Main organiser:
ANA PASTOR PéREZ (Spain) 1,2
Co-organisers:
Xurxo Ayán (Portugal) 3
Marcia Hattori (Spain) 4
Rafael Millán Pascual (Spain) 4
Affiliations:
1. University of Barcelona
2. Complutense University of Madrid
3. Universidade Nova de Lisboa
4. Incipit-CSIC. Institute of Heritage Sciences
THIS SESSION CAN NOT BE SELECTED AT THIS MOMENT