A ghost village. Spatial cleansing in Wigancice-Żytawskie in the landscape of the Turów mining and power complex, Lower Silesia

Abstract

The article presents an excerpt of some empirical research undertaken by an anthropologist on local ways of experiencing the operation of the Turów mining and energy complex in the Bogatynia commune in Lower Silesia within the context of an just energy transition. The aim of the reflections contained in this research sample is to present Wigancice Żytawskie – a town once located in the Bogatynia commune in the Zgorzelec poviat as a ghost village that functions in the minds of its former inhabitants and the generations that have followed as a lost and demolished yet remembered place. Wigancice was demolished by the end of the 2oth century due to the expansion of the lignite open pit in the Turów mine and the creation of an external dump, which was considered a threat to the village and its inhabitants. The text draws from Michael Herzfeld’s understanding of the term  ‘spatial cleansing’, which in the case of Wigancice was closely related to the activity of the Turów mining and energy complex. Adopting energy anthropology as a theoretical framework, the anthropologist shows the course and effects of this process in terms of human/non-human assemblage, at the same time asking questions about the special characteristics of human life in areas rich in energy resources and ways of experiencing a landscape changing under the influence of industrialization processes. The author also attempts to recover the stories of the inhabitants of the ghost village, whose fates intertwined with the functioning of the Turów mine and were marked by the experience of loss, dispossession and relocation in the process of industrial transformations in the region.