What makes a wasteland?: ruins, rubble and regeneration

This paper examines how (post)industrial spaces become labelled as ‘disused’, ‘wastelands’, or ‘brownfields’ in processes of urban redevelopment. Taking a broad overview of different examples across sites in Edinburgh and London (UK) I ask how understandings of waste and value are produced and contested through industrial processes themselves (the production of by-products, contamination etc.), mitigation measures (including environmental cleanup and archaeological interventions) and at a socio-cultural level (natural and cultural heritage preservation campaigns, and legislation for example). I aim to problematise the strict differentiation between which industrial landscapes can be considered ‘waste’ and which are seen as valuable heritage sites. In particular I will discuss the material and discursive transformations of several London and Edinburgh dockside sites from places of heavy industry, transport and labour into spaces of consumption, luxury accommodation and leisure.