Geographies of Post-Industrial Place, Memory, and Heritage

Mark Alan Rhodes II, William R. Price, Amy Walker

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000225372
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Economic History
• Index: Economics

All industrialization is deeply rooted within the specific geographies in which it took place, and echoes of previous industrialization continue to reverberate in these places through to the modern day. This book investigates the overlap of memory and the impacts of industrialization within today's communities and the senses of place and heritage that grew alongside and in reaction to the growth of mines, mills, and factories.

The economic and social change that accompanied the unchecked accumulation of wealth and exploitation of labor as the industrial revolution spread throughout the world has numerous lasting impacts on the socioeconomics of today. Likewise, the planet itself is now reeling. The memory and heritage of these processes reach into the communities that owe the industrial revolution their existence, but these populations also often suffered adverse impacts to their health and environment through the large-scale and rapid extraction of natural resources and production of goods. Through the themes of memory, community, and place; working post-industrial landscapes; and the de-romanticization of industrial pasts, this book examines the endurance and decline of these communities, the spatial processes of industrial byproducts, and the memory and heritage of industrialization and its legacies.

While based in the traditions of geography, this collection also draws upon and will be of great interest to students and scholars of cultural anthropology, archaeology, sociology, history, architecture, civil engineering, and heritage, memory, museum, and tourism studies. Using global examples, the authors provide a uniquely geographic understanding to industrial heritage across the spaces, places, and memories of industrial development.

1 Introduction

Geographies of post-industrial memory, place, and heritage

Mark Alan Rhodes II, William R. Price, and Amy Walker

Whilst living in the Black Country, an area of industrial heritage and smoke that so granted the region its name, I had come to think of post-industrial as being defined by networks of canals, abandoned warehouses and red-brick glass cones. Small villages have run together into an endless urban sprawl of small commercial centres and many industrial estates, but each are known for their own historical trade. The Jewellery Quarter on the way into central Birmingham. My own hometown was known for glass and crystal.

Yet, in the valleys of South Wales, especially the smaller villages I find myself in, these networks are beneath ground, invisible and absent-minded. I consider that most of the people here will never have entered a mine, despite the fact that they almost all have family that were coal miners. I have never entered a foundry, even though many of my family worked in them, one as an apprentice even now.

Perhaps it is a more effective metaphor that these valleys seem to veil their own history. The oft-travelled passages to the coal face beneath my feet as I walk along a footpath that used to be a railway line. The trained eye, the informed walker, the historian, the local; they know the legacies in this landscape. The ghosts of the miners themselves might walk beneath me, their own routes so entrenched in daily routine, in mass numbers, in years of repetition, that they continue even after the carbon monoxide and time takes over the tunnels.

– Amy Walker

The legacy of industrial places and practices lives on within geographies of post-industrial heritage. As the previous anecdote illustrates, we, the editors of this book, each have our own stories behind what engrossed us in the geography and history of industry. Walker was raised on the outskirts of a region called the Black Country in England, so named for the coal seams and the smoke of foundries, now defined by deindustrialization. Price grew up amidst the oil landscapes of Oklahoma and touring industrial heritage sites on visits with family in Wales. Rhodes was born in the Rust Belt surrounded by the struggling river cities of Central Illinois who have long lost their moniker as the nation’s assay yet continue on with dwindling hubs of manufacturing and increasingly corporatized industrial agriculture. We imagine that many of you can point to similar experiences in launching your passions.

Figure 1.1 View over Wordsley canal and red-brick glass cone from Stuart Crystal Factory, 2012

Source: David Walker

This book concerns the overlap of memory and impacts of industrialization within the communities that grew alongside factories, mines, power stations, warehouses, and railways. The associated infrastructure dominates the landscape of many regions around the world, whether still functioning, memorialized, adapted to other uses, or abandoned. The unchecked accumulation of wealth and exploitation of labor has lasting economic and social influences. Likewise, the acceleration of environmental degradation that began during the industrial revolution continues to have widespread ramifications.

The consequences of these processes reach both into the communities that owe their existence to the industrial revolution and those whose health, environment, and population were severely impacted through the large scale and rapid extraction of natural resources and production of goods. We examine these communities, the spatial processes of industrial byproducts, and the memory and heritage of industrialization and deindustrialization. In so doing, we assert the important role of geography in considering post-industrial places.

A geographic approach

As industrial activity – and therefore the experiences of deindustrialization and post-industrialism – impacts all areas of life, geography as a discipline is arguably best situated amongst the humanities and social sciences to address the multiplicity and complexity of these legacies. Fundamentally, industrial development and decline happen in place. These transitions occur within communities, tied into multiscalar and complex networks.

We do not downplay the invaluable contributions of other academic disciplines, including history, anthropology, sociology, urban studies, and heritage studies. Indeed, as will be evident throughout this book, geographers draw heavily on their work for inspiration and guidance. Rather, we seek to highlight that geographers are ideally positioned, through our understanding of place, spatial techniques, and the inherent integrative quality of the field, to add insights.

There are many avenues for geographers to broaden understanding of community engagement with deindustrialized and post-industrialized places. Economic geographers debate the transitions from traditional industrial work and Fordism to more diverse forms of business across development models and analyze the associated interventions from policymakers (Malmberg 1997). Historical geographers consider the patterns of industrial life and society using archival materials and oral history, drawing on the long-standing contributions of historians and archeologists to these debates (Gregory 1988). Tourism geographers investigate how communities preserve and promote their industrial heritage, translating processes and memories to visitors (Jonsen-Verbeke 1999). Planners grapple with the impacts of industrialization on the environment (Whitehead 2014).

Geographers also engage with the broader social theory surrounding these transitions, reflecting on the conceptualization of post-modern society (Bauman 2000; Beck 1992). Feminist geography provides a key contribution to these investigations, addressing issues of gendered work, inequalities of experience for those enrolled in or adjacent to industrial work, and changes from the decline of industry (Nelson and Seager 2005). Existing work on post-industrial societies focuses disproportionately on countries that were the traditional focus of models of modernity (Simon 1998). Yet, industrialization has always been international and imbued with the power relations of colonialism (McEwan 2008). Post-colonial geographers have considered this underrepresentation and acknowledged experiences beyond large Western economies and the extensive and problematic histories of these structures (Henry, McEwan, and Pollard 2002; Jacobs 1996).

Contextualizing industrialization and deindustrialization

In this section, we provide a brief overview of the historic and geographic context of industrialization and deindustrialization. Many of the topics that we raise here are revisited within place-specific circumstances across the chapters of this book.

The industrial revolution

Humans have been engaging in manufacturing for millennia, based out of homes (“cottage industry”) and small professional enterprises (“guild industry”). Many common English surnames dating back more than a millennium are testaments to the longstanding influence of industrial occupations, such as Smith, Weaver, and Cooper. Indeed, the revolution that took place between the 18th and early 20th centuries is an era characterized not by the emergence of industry, but by a rapid increase in the scale of production.

The growth of the English textile industry from the 1730s is generally acknowledged as the beginning of the industrial revolution (Allen 2009; Hobsbawm 1999; Deane 1979). The first textile mills set in motion profound social, economic, and environmental changes worldwide (see Figure 1.2). Production of larger quantities of goods at lower costs accelerated demand, generated wealth, and led to a rapid expanse of the middle class. Numerous other impacts that accompanied industrialization have been well documented (Allen 2017), including mechanization of equipment, technological advances, and environmental damages at the global scale.

As geographers, we investigate many of these impacts, but our focus in this book is primarily concerned with the legacies of industrialization for communities. Perhaps the most important accompanying change in this regard has been the exponential population growth that began during the industrial revolution; a rise from less than one billion humans globally in the 1700s to 7.8 billion in 2020. Another lasting influence is an alteration in where humans live and work. Fewer than 10% of humans lived in urban areas in 1800; now, that number is over 50%. Much of this ongoing urbanization has been driven by the association between cities, industry, and employment. The invention of the steam engine uncoupled manufacturing dependency from physical geography, allowing for the creation of power to drive machines anywhere (Allen 2009). Consequently, factories were concentrated in cities, and large numbers migrated in pursuit of economic opportunities.

Figure 1.2 The Moser Raiser finishing machine in the National Wool Museum (Wales). The museum connects mechanized textile finishing as a particular impetus for the early 19th-century Luddite Movement

Source: Mark Alan Rhodes II

In industrializing countries, communities expanded – and were sometimes founded – in response to the demands of industry, including transportation, communication, energy production, and resource extraction. Factories, mines, and other elements of industry dominated employment in many areas. Other enterprises were founded alongside industries, with businesses catering to the needs of companies, workers, and families. In some areas, “company towns” dominated, with corporations providing nearly all jobs and shaping communities’ way of life.

However, not all people and areas benefited from industrialization (Allen 2017). Many places associated with agriculture and prior forms of industry suffered high unemployment and outmigration. Industrialization was fiercely resisted in some places, as underscored by the Luddites in early 19th-century England, who sought to protect their livelihoods by sabotaging machines. Industrial cities often had large numbers of impoverished people, with many rural to urban migrants not finding the economic opportunities they sought. Industrialization accelerated colonization and vice versa, driven by demand for power, raw materials, and luxury items. Among the many legacies of industrialization is its association with slavery. As World Systems Theory articulates, wealth in one area of the globe is often predicated on marginalization in another (Wallerstein 1974).

Industry also served as a center of social and political activity. Successive generations often worked in the same factory or mine. Sporting clubs, bands, educational institutes, and other elements of social life revolved around industry. Difficult, often unsafe, working conditions and low wages united workers and their communities in common cause, with industrial areas becoming some of the largest fomenters of union activity (Featherstone 2012; Francis and Smith 1980; Winterton and Winterton 1989). The products and tools of industry bec...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• List of contributors
• Acknowledgments
• 1 Introduction: geographies of post-industrial memory, place, and heritage
• Part 1 Constructing post-industrial communities: place, memory, and practice
• Part 2 Post-industrial working landscapes
• Part 3 De-romanticizing industrial heritage
• Index