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Space, and access to resource deposits in particular, is a central theme of studies in economic history. However, new approaches to the theory of space that highlight the relations between people, places and things as constituents of multiple and dynamic spaces, have so far rarely been systematically applied to questions relating to resource economies. By referring to spaces of resource extraction as 'sites', this introductory article develops the notion that spaces in which resources are accessed, distributed and consumed are not a fixed and pregiven category, but exist in dynamic spatial relations. These spatial relations can be made up of perceptions and images, such as geological knowledge or spheres of interests, social structures, such as in the distribution of real-estate property and in power relations, or they can be established by the expansion of infrastructures and by terms of trade. They also pertain to the physical properties of the resources themselves, especially when considering the environmental impact of extraction. All of these spatial relations are highly variable and change historically in interdependence with the dynamics of resource extraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an important fuel, hard coal shaped industrialisation. Due to its specific materiality, coal established different options for intertwining industry and resource. This paper concentrates on the one hand on the specific properties of coal and, on the other, on the economic and technological operations with coal. Using the example of the different material properties of coal from the coal districts of Inde and Wurm, these interrelations are examined and illustrate how a space of resource extraction could be arranged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a report from a May 22-25, 2014 conference in Stuttgart, Germany on the history of production management and technologies. Topics of presentations delivered included political aspects of the automation of 20th-century production facilities in East and West Germany, the history of strikes in the printing industry in the 1970s and 1980s, and the implementation of Lean production techniques at the Czech shoe factory Bata.