The meanings of coal community in Britain since 1947

Phillips, J. (2018) The meanings of coal community in Britain since 1947. Contemporary British History, 32(1), pp. 39-59. (doi: 10.1080/13619462.2017.1408533)

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Abstract

This article offers an original contribution to the literature on coal communities and the history of the coal industry in Britain by examining changes and contested interests within Britain’s coal territories since nationalisation in 1947. The analysis is organised around three distinct but over-lapping meanings of coal community: economic locality, ideological communality and occupational group. As economic localities mining communities became stronger in the 1960s, even as the coal industry itself was shrinking, but then less viable as all forms of industrial employment dwindled in the 1980s. In ideological terms coal communities were divided by gender as well as class, but became more cohesive with social change and greater opportunities for women. A network of increasingly solid localities contributed—despite the divisions of 1984–1985 and subsequent job losses—to the strengthening of a national occupational community, partly because deindustrialisation was a common working class disaster that transcended regional boundaries.

Item Type:Articles
Keywords:Coal industry, coal communities, community, economic security, nationalisation, deindustrialisation.
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Phillips, Professor Jim
Authors: Phillips, J.
Subjects:D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain
H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions
H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor
H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management
H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform
H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races
College/School:College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Economic and Social History
Journal Name:Contemporary British History
Publisher:Taylor & Francis
ISSN:1361-9462
ISSN (Online):1743-7997
Published Online:18 December 2017
Copyright Holders:Copyright © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
First Published:First published in Contemporary British History 32(1): 39-59
Publisher Policy:Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher.

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