Mining temporalities: Future perspectives

In this commentary, I trace how temporal frames are embedded in spatial notions. I want to look into contrasts between 'old' mining regions and the newer terrains for resource extraction, and comment upon the recent resurgence of 'frontier' as analytical term. Subsequently, I want to focus on future makers, both in the field of planning and development. In both cases I will pay attention to the articulation of multiple temporalities at work within a social context. In analysing the politics of time in development discourse, the focus will be on moralities of money matters and time frames of debt relations. With this commentary, I want to emphasize that we need to analyse how multiple mining temporalities take place: how the making of temporalities is connected to place making; how the making of temporalities is best studied in tangible empirical events that take place; and how future projections are quarantined from, or directly affect social processes actually taking place.