Growth, Decline and Recovery [antikvár]

Preface Growth, decline and recovery express what has happened to some of the most important heavy industrial regions in the western countries recently; following a dramatic economic decline, which started in the 1960s and terminated their centur>'-long dynamic expansion, these regions have subsequendy been successfully revitalised. As a result of regeneration projects it has been proven that the heritage of mining and iron making can be turned into one of the greatest assets for the regions instead of one of their worst disadvantages - and so can be used for their overall benefit. However, the regeneration of heavy industrial regions through conservation is rather complicated. By presenting numerous case studies this volume gives an overview of the main issues related to the process from a mulddisciplinary approach that is essential in industrial archaeology. The heavy industrial regions of East Central Europe and Hungar>' in particular are of special importance in the publication because in those regions decline is still ongoing and implementation of the best recovery methods would be highly beneficial. By studying this book readers wUl hopefully come to realise that industrial archaeology, related closely to current economic, social, culmral and environmental issues, is a very special academic discipline that can make industrial heritage a powerful driving force for sustainable development. Most papers in the book were presented at an international conference organised in Hungary in September 1999, entided Economic Structure in Change, Industrial Heritage in Danger, on behalf of The International Committee for the Conservation of the Industrial Heritage (TICCIH). It featured presentations from fifty professionals from a broad range of research fields, such as history, archaeology, cultural anthropology, engineering, conservation architecture, and museum and heritage studies. The audience was large, coming from twenty European and Northern American countries, namely, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United States, and was well over one hundred, unusually numerous for an intermediate and not a general conference. The week-long meeting was organised by the University of Miskolc and TICCIH Hungary, and received professional support from the Hungarian Mining and Metallurgical Society, the Hungarian Historical Association, ICOMOS Hungary, and the Metallurgical Faculty of the Technical University of Kosice. Gusztáv Heckenast, the senior advisor of the Institute of History of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and an Honorary Doctor of the University of Miskolc started the preparation of the conference as the chair of the academic panel. Unfortunately, fate did not let him finish the work because he fell ill and died just eight months before the meeting. Throughout his long academic career, Gusztáv Heckenast was always receptive to new intellectual developments around the world, and considered it his personal responsibility to facilitate their adoption in his home country. Fascinated by the perspectives of industrial archaeology, he was the first Hungarian scholar who became interested in this new discipline, participating in and also making a memorable presentation to the second international conference of industrial archaeologists in Bochum. Certainly, using the opportunities provided by the intermediate conference, Gusztáv Heckenast, with his extraordinary reputation as a historian, could have been of major help for us in making industrial archaeology widely known and accepted in Hungary. Regrettably, it did not happen. The loss was great but not only for the academic world. I myself owe him much for driving my attention to the history of industry as well as to industrial archaeology, and supporting my work with his high-level professional advice for over a decade. In honour of his outstanding academic achievements concern-mg the history of iron production in Hungary as well as his pioneering efforts to promote industrial archaeology throughout the country, both the conference and the volume in your hands have been dedicated to his memory. Györgfi Németh University of Miskolc