Overview

Since the 1960s, nations across the “developed world” have been profoundly shaped by deindustrialization. In regions in which previously dominant industries faced crises or have disappeared altogether, industrial heritage offers a fascinating window into the phenomenon’s cultural dimensions. As the contributions to this volume demonstrate, even as forms of industrial heritage provide anchors of identity for local populations, their meanings remain deeply contested, as both radical and conservative varieties of nostalgia intermingle with critical approaches and straightforward apologias for a past that was often full of pain, exploitation and struggle.

Full Product Details

Author:   Stefan Berger, Berger
Publisher:   Berghahn Books
Imprint:   Berghahn Books
ISBN:  

9781836950714

ISBN 10:   1836950713
Pages:   329
Publication Date:   01 July 2025
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

Table of Contents

List of Figures, Maps, and Tables Introduction: Preconditions for the Making of an Industrial Past – Comparative Perspectives Stefan Berger Chapter 1. ‘Sooty Manchester’- (Re)Presenting an Urban-Industrial Landscape Paul Pickering Chapter 2. Where is ‘Red Clydeside’? Industrial Heritage, Working Class Culture and Memory in the Glasgow Region Arthur McIvor Chapter 3. Industrial Heritage as Place-making: The Case of Wales Bella Dicks Chapter 4. The Steel Industry in Welsh History and Heritage Louise Miskell Chapter 5. Cornish Mining Heritage and Cornish Identity: Images, Representations and Narratives Hilary Orange Chapter 6. Industrial Heritage and the Remaking of Class Identity – Are We All Middle Class Now? Laurajane Smith Chapter 7. The Agents of Industrial Heritage in the Midst of Structural Transformation of the Latrobe Valley, Australia’ Erik Eklund Chapter 8. ‘Hardly a Cause for Tears’: Job Insecurity and Occupational Psychology Culture in Italy - Oral Narratives from the Falck Steelworks in Sesto San Giovanni (Milan) Roberta Garruccio Chapter 9. Between Dream and Nightmare: Political Conventions of the Industrial Past in the North of France Marion Fontaine Chapter 10. Memory Culture and Identity Constructions in the Ruhr Valley in Germany Stefan Berger and Jana Golombek Chapter 11. Sounds of Decline. Industrial Echoes in Asturian Music Rubén Vega Chapter 12. The Coal-Environment Nexus: How Nostalgic Identity Burdens Heritage in Romania’s Jiu Valley David A. Kideckel Chapter 13. A Special Kind of Cultural Heritage - The Remembrance of Workers’ Life in Contemporary Hungary – Case Study of Ózd Tibor Valuch Chapter 14. Ruins for Politics: Selling Industrial Heritage in Postsocialist China’s Rustbelt Tong Lam Chapter 15. The Heritage of the Chinese Eastern Railway: Symbol of Colonization and International Cooperation Zhao Xin and Qu Xiaofan Conclusion: Narrativisations of an Industrial Past – Labour, the Environment and the Construction of Space in Comparative Perspective Stefan Berger Index

Reviews

“The 15 case studies are written to a uniformly high standard and provide a consistent approach to investigating each context's local cultural identity, which is increasingly important to maintain and acknowledge in this age of rapid globalization and homogenization of identity and economics. This analysis of specific regional examples of post-industrial history and the remembrance of an often romanticized, yet harsh, industrial identity will be of wide academic and regional interest…Recommended.” • Choice “This collection of well-focused essays takes an original approach to a subject of very wide interest. It has substantial cross-disciplinary appeal.” • Chris Wrigley, Nottingham University “Constructing Industrial Pasts is a timely volume on post-industrial history and the processes and politics of remembrance. It covers a richly detailed set of case studies and makes an invaluable contribution to the field.” • Denis Byrne, Western Sydney University

Author Information

Stefan Berger is Professor of Social History and directs the Institute for Social Movements at the Ruhr University Bochum. He is also Chairman of the Foundation History of the Ruhr and Honorary Professor at Cardiff University in the UK. Before taking up his current position in Germany in 2011, he held the position of Professor of Modern German and Comparative European History at the University of Manchester.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Countries Available

All regions