Deindustrialisation

This course examines deindustrialisation as a transnational historical transformation process with ongoing local consequences, where workplace closures, job losses, and relocation affect social cohesion and collective identities. The course addresses not only how families' means of livelihood have changed and how the social world of the factory floor has been disrupted by downsizing or outsourcing, but also how the collective identities of entire industrial communities are undergoing transformation. As industrial towns transition to post-industrial conditions, new promises for the future are accompanied by uncertainty, often characterised by diverse and unclear horizons of expectation. The broader economic and social structures that have shaped and validated working-class living conditions have been, and continue to be, renegotiated over decades. The course includes in-depth study within the field of deindustrialisation studies, as well as an independently selected case study of deindustrialisation.