The Routledge International Handbook of Deindustrialization Studies

The Routledge International Handbook of Deindustrialization Studies is a timely volume that provides an overview of this interdisciplinary field that emerged in response to the widespread decline of manufacturing and heavy industry from the 1980s onwards. Edited by prominent figures in the field, the volume brings together many of the leading scholars from a range of countries across the globe to offer a multifaceted overview of deindustrialization and its impact.

Deindustrialisation has been cited as one of the factors behind the rise of the far right, and to a lesser extent the far left, across Europe, the rise and success of Trumpism in the US, and the Brexit vote as well as the more recent and sudden erosion of UK Labour’s ’Red Wall’ of the North of England. This collection brings together scholars of deindustrialisation around the globe and from a wide variety of academic disciplines including history, sociology, politics, geography, economics, anthropology, literature, arts practice, photography, heritage, and cultural studies. In doing so, the Handbook explores the roots of deindustrialisation across the world, highlights the key themes and issues in the field, illustrates the intersectional and interdisciplinary character of the field, and shows how deindustrialisation lies at the heart of many of the key political, cultural, social and economic issues of our time.

Written in a clear and accessible style, the Handbook is a comprehensive interdisciplinary volume for this young but maturing field. The volume is a valuable resource for students, teachers and researchers interested in industrial decline, closure and the multifaceted impacts they cause. It speaks to readers across the arts, humanities, social and political sciences concerned with deindustrialization broadly defined.

Tim Strangleman is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent, UK, where he is also director of the Work, Employment and Economic Life research cluster. He has researched and published widely on issues of work, class, community and deindustrialisation. He has carried out work in the coal mining, rail, health, ship building, engineering, paper making and brewing industries, drawing on oral history, archives and visual material. He is author of Work Identity at the End of the Line? Privatisation and Culture Change in the UK Railway Industry (2004) and Voices of Guinness: An Oral History of the Park Royal Brewery (2019). He is also co-author of Work and Society: Sociological Approaches, Themes and Methods (2008) and co-editor of The Routledge Handbook of Working-Class Studies (2021). He is also co-investigator on the Deindustrialization and the Politics of Our Time (DéPOT) project.

Sherry Lee Linkon is a Professor of English and American Studies at Georgetown University, USA, where, with campus and community colleagues, she developed the Steel Valley Voices digital archive of interviews and artifacts reflecting the experiences of 24 racial and ethnic groups in the Youngstown area. Her most recent book, The Half-Life of Deindustrialization (2018), examines early twenty first-century working-class narratives reflecting the continuing effects of economic restructuring in the U.S. With John Russo, she also co-authored Steeltown USA: Work and Memory in Youngstown (2002) and co-edited New Working Class Studies (2005). Her current research examines literature and photography reflecting Black women’s perspectives on the legacies of deindustrialization. She is also a co-investigator on the Deindustrialization and the Politics of Our Time (DéPOT) project.

Steven High is Professor of History at Concordia University, Canada and principal investigator of the Deindustrialization and the Politics of Our Time (DéPOT) project. He has published extensively on the history and politics of deindustrialization in the United States and Canada. His book, Industrial Sunset: The Making of North America’s Rust Belt (2003), won prizes from the American Historical Association and other organizations. He is also author of Corporate Wasteland: The Landscape and Memory of Deindustrialization (with photographer David Lewis, 2007) and One Job Town: Work, Memory and Betrayal in Northern Ontario (2018), and co-editor of The Deindustrialized World: Confronting Ruination in Postindustrial Places (2017).

Jackie Clarke is Senior Lecturer in French Studies at the University of Glasgow, UK, where she is also a member of the Centre for Gender History. She is also a co-Investigator on the Deindustrialization and the Politics of Our Time (DéPOT) project. Her research explores questions about work, consumption, deindustrialization and gender in contemporary France. She is co-editor of a special issue on gender and deindustrialization in International Labor and Working Class Studies (2024).

Stefan Berger is Professor of Social History and Director of the Institute for Social Movements at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany. He is also executive chair of the Foundation History of the Ruhr and an Honorary Professor at Cardiff University, UK. He is the author of History and Identity: How Historical Theory Shapes Historical Practice (2022) and editor of Constructing Industrial Pasts: Heritage, Historical Culture and Identity in Regions Undergoing Structural Economic Transformation (2020). He is a co-investigator on the Deindustrialization and the Politics of Our Time (DéPOT) project, an international partnership project funded by the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).