Sustaining life through human and more-than-human work: The case of litter-raking stands in Bela Krajina, Slovenia

The litter-raking stands of Bela Krajina in Slovenia are taken as a reference point to examine the entanglements of human and more-than-human worlds through the concept of work as an activity that places humans in a relationship with other living beings. In the domestic agricultural economy of the past, the litter-raking stands were used as pastures for livestock in the spring and summer. In the fall, people gathered litter and cut bracken for bedding the livestock that returned to the barns before winter. The practice led to soil degradation and acidification, so that only sparsely growing birch, pine, and undergrowth of bracken, spring heath, and common heather grew on these lands. In the process of modernization and de-agrarization these activities have been abandoned since the 1960s, and the most litter-raking stands have since become overgrown. Today, some of these stands are protected as natural heritage under Natura 2000. They are home to various birds, butterflies, insects, fungi and orchids and are cut only to preserve biotic diversity. Fast reforestation in this context thus points to the importance of moderate human disturbances for biodiversity conservation. Based on a case study of litter-raking stands, this paper acknowledges the ethic of care as inherent to work as a life-sustaining practice where human and non-human well-being are entangled (Krzywoszynska 2020). Furthermore, it explores whether it is possible to consider work as a life-sustaining practice embedded in a more-than-human relationality, reciprocity, and care that recognizes “work of nature” (Battistoni 2017) for ecosystem maintenance as well.