Back to the Postindustrial Future

<p> How does an urban community come to terms with the loss of its future? The former socialist model city of Hoyerswerda is an extreme case of a declining postindustrial city. Built to serve the GDR coal industry it lost over half its population to outmigration after German reunification and the coal industry crisis leading to the large-scale deconstruction of its cityscape. This book tells the story of its inhabitants now forced to reconsider their futures. Building on recent theoretical work it advances a new anthropological approach to time allowing us to investigate the postindustrial era and the futures it has supposedly lost.</p>