Enhancing Lower Austria’s Rural Industrial Heritage – New Approaches Through Citizen Science

Lower Austria is generally perceived primarily as an agricultural region. The fact that rural areas were and are also a place of industry has so far only been mentioned in passing. Industry is primarily associated with towns, in Lower Austria with those in the so-called industrial district. In contrast, the numerous smaller industrial sites in rural communities, which can be found in all “quarters” of the province, have been largely unexplored to date. Industrial culture is usually part of the “unloved”, often overlooked cultural heritage. Even if the facilities are listed in a local chronicle, for example, there is usually no closer examination of them - regardless of the fact that the plants have often helped to shape the history of a place and its inhabitants for decades or even centuries and continue to do so. The same applies to objects and documents from and about the businesses in local museum collections and archives. The cataloging and indexing of the rich industrial heritage collections in Lower Austria, their preservation and accessibility, especially digitally, are still pending. In terms of content, the Citizen Science project “Industry in the Village” aims to research Lower Austria's rural industrial heritage more comprehensively for the first time, make it digitally accessible and raise awareness of the importance of industrial heritage, particularly at a local and regional level. It focuses on the buildings as well as the history, objects and documents. Dynamic aspects, such as changes in the function and use of buildings and infrastructures as well as objects and documents, are also taken into account, for example in relation to economic, political and social changes or approaches to heritage conservation. On a methodological level, new ways of participatory research into rural industrial heritage are to be developed, tested, evaluated and documented together with the citizen scientists. In addition to the collaborative development of procedures and workflows, the process-oriented approach also includes the development of qualitative and quantitative evaluation criteria. A special feature of the project is its sustainable approach, in that it draws as much as possible on existing local cultural heritage initiatives and aims to further develop their knowledge and skills with regard to researching rural industrial culture in collaborative processes. Based on already active citizen researchers, we would like to motivate and involve other interested people such as contemporary witnesses and especially young people as citizen scientists. In particular, we plan to work with three existing main groups of citizen scientists who have the relevant expertise on the sites, their history, buildings and the many traces of memory: regional and local history researchers, topotheque experts and the numerous volunteers in local and regional museums with industrial heritage collections.