Dr. Torsten Meyer is Senior Scientist at the Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum and Deputy Head of Department at the Mining History Document Center (montan.dok). Prior to that he was researcher and senior researcher at the University of Hamburg, the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich. He is mainly interested in the History of Technology and Science (16th-18th century), History of Post-Industrial Landscapes (20/21th century), and Construction History (18th-20th century). He was member of the editorial board of the “Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit” (2005-2012) and since 2017 he is editor (together with Marcus Popplow) of the “Studien zur Geschichte von Technik, Arbeit und Umwelt” (formerly “Cottbuser Studien zur Geschichte von Technik, Arbeit und Umwelt”, founded by Günter Bayerl). He has worked on the industrial heritage of the GDR and is working on authenticity issues of industrial heritage in the UK. He is lecturer at Ruhr-Universität Bochum.
Documents
Sessions in which Torsten Meyer participates
Monday 29 August, 2022
During the Industrial Revolution coal was the most important energy source for both homes and industries. At the time, coal mining created strong regional industrial identities and mentalities, as well as industrial images and imaginaries in the eyes and minds of external observers. Such identities and ideas of coal would go on to shape industrial landscapes and communities.The papers presented in this session investigate the social and economic changes that were triggered by ...
During the Industrial Revolution coal was the most important energy source for both homes and industries. At the time, coal mining created strong regional industrial identities and mentalities, as well as industrial images and imaginaries in the eyes and minds of external observers. Such identities and ideas of coal would go on to shape industrial landscapes and communities.The papers presented in this session investigate the social and economic changes that were triggered by ...
During the Industrial Revolution coal was the most important energy source for both homes and industries. At the time, coal mining created strong regional industrial identities and mentalities, as well as industrial images and imaginaries in the eyes and minds of external observers. Such identities and ideas of coal would go on to shape industrial landscapes and communities.The papers presented in this session investigate the social and economic changes that were triggered by ...
Tuesday 30 August, 2022
During the Industrial Revolution coal was the most important energy source for both homes and industries. At the time, coal mining created strong regional industrial identities and mentalities, as well as industrial images and imaginaries in the eyes and minds of external observers. Such identities and ideas of coal would go on to shape industrial landscapes and communities.The papers presented in this session investigate the s...
During the Industrial Revolution coal was the most important energy source for both homes and industries. At the time, coal mining created strong regional industrial identities and mentalities, as well as industrial images and imaginaries in the eyes and minds of external observers. Such identities and ideas of coal would go on to shape industrial landscapes and communities.The papers presented in this session investigate the s...
Sessions in which Torsten Meyer attends
Sunday 28 August, 2022
Explore the banks of the Lachine Canal, the cradle of industry in Canada. Benefiting from access to hydraulic power, maritime and rail transport, large numbers of industrial facilities were built along its length. Thousands of Montrealers have lived and worked there. The banks of the canal are now a linear park, and the site of many residential developments.A walking tour designed and guided by Heritage Montréal. The visit will be in French and will...
Join the conference organisers and TICCIH board members for a welcome cocktail and some festive words of introduction, in the former forge of the École technique de Montréal, founded in 1909, now part of the Université du Québec à Montréal campus.
Monday 29 August, 2022
Si la vallée du canal de Lachine a été le berceau de l’industrialisation canadienne, la géographie industrielle métropolitaine ne s’y est pas confinée, peu s’en faut, Outre les grandes concentrations d’entreprises des quartiers centraux, elle est constituée des réseaux infrastructuraux, d’une douzaine de centrales hydroélectriques et des ensembles manufacturiers disséminés dans une quinzaine de petites villes aujourd’hui intégrées dans l’aire métropolitaine. La conférence proposera un surv...
Tuesday 30 August, 2022
Efforts to preserve industrial heritage occurs in a socio-economic and political context. But what is being preserved and for whom? And, relatedly, what is the relationship between industrial heritage sites and the deindustrialized working-class communities that often adjoin them? The keynote will consider the ways that the preservation of Montreal’s Lachine Canal, Canada’s premier industrial heritage site, has enabled gentrification processes that have forc...
Wednesday 31 August, 2022
The legacy of open pit mining in general, and in the landscape of the Lusatian lignite district in Germany in particular, is a recultivated, restored, man-made, technogenic landscape. However, the future post-mining land uses in Lusatia must be understood as an opportunity that enables future-oriented land use not only from a technological-scientific and economic basis, but also from a social and especially cultural perspective. Therefore, the currently often negatively described Lusatian ...
In this roundtable we will resume and discuss main ideas and findings from the regular session on "Reinterpreting industrial heritage from a global perspective", which will be held in 7 slots from Monday through to Wednesday morning. During these days, we will deepen the discussion between the session’s participants and other colleagues, while spending time together on the congress’ floors and doorsteps. In addition, we can build on previous reflections some of us shared dur...
In this lecture, I would like to talk about deindustrialised communities, heritage and memory in the context of right-wing populism. Drawing on studies of memory and heritage, I argue that right-wing populists have cornered the market on talking about the past of deindustrialised communities. They have successfully misrepresented this rich and complex history to fuel rage, resentment, fear and reactionary nostalgia. Indeed, ‘the past’, and in particular the industr...
Thursday 1 September, 2022
This lecture will argue that the landscapes of industrial heritage that can be found in different parts of the world are directly related to the place-specific trajectories of deindustrialization. In other words: the different ways in which deindustrialization impacts on local communities has a direct bearing on the emergence of forms of industrial heritage. I will differentialte between deindustrialization paths and related industrial heritage regimes in a) Anglo-...
Friday 2 September, 2022
In the refusal of people in communities abandoned by industrial capital to abandon their own places, we can read an implicit critique of the mobility and unaccountability of capital, raised by those who were once inside (however tenuously or uncomfortably) and now find themselves marginalized, “left behind.” The desire to catch up again, whether through attracting new investment or transvaluing abandoned sites as tourist attractions, makes this an essentially conservative critique that is ...
Come and share the good times of the congress and celebrate your scientific and professional discoveries in a former fruit jam factory, Usine C, built in 1913 and transformed at the end of the 1970s into a place for creation and dissemination.Discover Montreal's gastronomy thanks to an exceptional caterer. Learn about Montreal's musical heritage and the history of the industrial district that brought it to life. Then hear and experience Quebec's musical tradition as you are carried ...