ABSTRACT
The notion of ecology and the scientific measuring of the environment are familiar to those working in land management projects, especially endangered species conservation. The pattern fits today's Ruhr District, where the production of nature and culture pivots on the idea of Heimat and dwelling in a man-made environment. The life-worlds of Central Australia and the Ruhr District have experienced irreversible changes at every level. This chapter argues that the reevaluation of culture and nature as inherited objects, as something to be re-found, restored and preserved, locates identity in the past for the sake of the future. Haselbach et al. argues in their polemic against the culture stroke, the subsidised creative industries sold under the banner of civic participation, cultural plurality, sustainability, and future ecological and social concerns, are ultimately monocultural. The heritage of the coalmining milieu is also made from below in family-based cottage industries.
