Paper short abstract:

By outlining generational and spatial (dis)connexions between a former industrial working class and low-qualified retail workers in the urban area of the Great Valparaíso (Chile), this paper explores processes of local class and gender formations in contemporary de-industrialized landscapes.

Paper long abstract:

Unlike Central America where the advent of the new international division of labour became a source of cheap labour for the global north, in Chile the industry lost the relevance that once had. The Chilean process of de-industrialization was promoted right after the coup d’ Etat in 1973 when, despite technological dependence, there was a relatively consolidated industrial landscape fostered by 30 years of ECLAC - lead ‘developmental state’. As the ‘laboratory of neoliberalism’ in the Latin American region, the industry almost disappeared in favour of extractive and service sectors. Such economic shift transformed urban spaces and workers’ subjectivities: in the vacant lands of industries are now settled shopping centres and low-income Chileans started to identify themselves as part of the middle-class.

Through life stories and ethnographic vignettes, this presentation outlines generational and spatial (dis)connexions between a former industrial working class and contemporary low-qualified retail workers in the urban area of the Great Valparaíso. It argues that the new ‘service’ sectors often conceived as evidence of Chilean contemporary ‘middle-classness’ indeed compose the contemporary working classes and is generationally connected to its previous expressions in both, formal and informal sectors.

Paper short abstract:

I propose an anthropological framework for understanding deindustrialization. Examining a prolonged crisis in an alpine mining area, I show how halted prosperity trajectories lead to a 'crisis of presence.' The study's implications extend globally, revealing structural ties to capital accumulation.

Paper long abstract:

In the present paper I take inspiration from Herzfeld’s concept of “structural nostalgia” and of De Martino’s “crisis of presence” to propose a novel global comparative framework to think of deindustrialization anthropologically. I present the case of the long crisis conjuncture in four mining municipalities in the Italian Alps where I conducted fieldwork. This case brings me not so much to the descriptive task of pointing out the ways in which people in the extractive municipalities experience nostalgic ideations relative to past wage arrangements, but instead to identify the structural elements of what is idealized in the nostalgic reflections of my interlocutors, namely, the abstract concept of the market and that of the commodity exchange relation. I will present how the widespread presence of ideation about an abstracted space where a set of declinations of prosperity become available and how the interruption of the ability to fulfil upward life trajectories rendered possible thanks to that space, produce a “crisis of presence” in the world and history.

I argue that such processes are not only relevant for the case I analyzed, but in most deindustrializing contexts around the world. They are structural in both the sense of relating to the inner logics of capital accumulation, and in that of global, systemic processes of industrial relocation and of shortening of accumulation cycles due to global productive overcapacity. These reflections will also aid the analysis of new dynamics of re-industrialization in brown fields that already witnessed deindustrialization thanks to anticipated reshoring projects.

Paper short abstract:

The speech aims to show how the fear of losing financial security as a result of the costs of energy transition affects the perception of climate change and environmental threats among residents and employees of coal basins as well as environments and people vulnerable to economic pressure.

Paper long abstract:

Energy transition can make energy production more sustainable and support policies to protect the climate, air and water. In the socio-economic dimension, however, not everyone will benefit from it. Namely, the effects of energy transition will include deindustrialisation, which may be dramatic, particularly in coal basins. For the green transition not to become only a slogan for the market and advertising sector, it must meet the conditions of just transition and include fair social policy. Without respect for the principles of justice and equality, the goals of the green transition may be rejected by the people’s classes, including the confused working class. Fears and risks of the costs of energy transition may be political fuel for right-wing populists.

This speech will be based on empirical data from the Turów lignite basin located on the border of Poland, the Czech Republic and Germany, as well as focus group interviews conducted with older people who are worried about rising heating costs. The perception of coal and climate change among the residents of coal basins is directly related to their concerns about the loss of economic security. If the green transition is reduced to the development of the eco-sector of the capitalist economy, and people from lower classes are deprived of jobs and economic security as a result of deindustrialisation, the principles of both ecology and social justice will suffer. The green transition as a real social change must include both environmental protection and a more egalitarian socio-economic perspective.

Paper short abstract:

Examining the closure of textile mills in Pondicherry, a former French colony on the southern coast of India, and its parallel reinvention as a tourist attraction at the end of the 20th century, this paper argues for non-metropolitan histories of structural economic change in the global South.

Paper long abstract:

Large metropolitan cities have typically served as the point of empirical reference for histories of industrial change in India. The development of the composite textile mill was at the heart of Indian industrialization in the 20th century. Its decline towards the end of the 20th century and the far-reaching impact on large cities like Bombay and Ahmedabad, is well documented. But the closure of textile mills was equally consequential for many medium and small cities in India such as Pondicherry, Indore, Hisar and Nagpur, even if their vagaries did not always register at the macroeconomic level. How do the histories of non-metropolitan places extend and alter our understanding of the variegated realities of deindustrialization within India and beyond? How do differing legal and political regimes, regional histories and economic contexts shape how places experience, absorb, respond to and remember structural economic change?

Using secondary and archival sources, the paper excavates the closure of textile mills in Pondicherry, a former French colony on the southern coast of India, and its parallel ongoing reinvention as a site of (colonial) heritage tourism at the end of the 20th century. It argues, further, for theorising deindustrialization from the global South, where legacies of colonialism and globalisation have decisively influenced postcolonial economic trajectories. Extending deindustrialization studies beyond its origins in the North Atlantic reveals new modalities and temporalities of deindustrialization. What are the implications of these asymmetries, between the global North and South, and between the metropolis and the province, for our understanding of deindustrialization?

Paper short abstract:

This paper considers deindustrialisation since the mid-19th century and shows how it is shaped by capitalism's historical fixes triggered by shifts in hegemonic power in the world system and by capital's geographical seesaw that incorporates and ejects locations from industry-based exploitation.

Paper long abstract:

Deindustrialisation is commonly studied as a political-economic process that first "hit" Western advanced capitalist nations during the global crisis of the 1970s. Thus closely linked to the flexibilisation of capitalist manufacturing industries and wider accumulation strategies that saw corporations relocate to newly industrialising nations in Asia and Latin America, deindustrialisation is seldom considered as a historical phenomenon that stretches back to the 19th century.

Building on long-term ethnographic and archival research in and on Mauritius, this paper considers the transition from colonial modes of exploitation and accumulation in plantation industries and real estate businesses to postcolonial modes of exploitation and accumulation in manufacturing, tourism, and financial services industries. This shows that deindustrialisation is the unseen Siamese twin of capitalist industrialisation; with all new industries developing in one world region because of processes of deindustrialisation in other world regions.

In order to theorise the longue durée of deindustrialisation, this paper draws on Neil Smith's concept of the geographical seesaw of capitalism (according to which capital abandons regions with high reproduction costs for labour and fixed infrastuctures in favour of regions where such costs are lower, only to return once a period of deindustrialisation has rendered abandoneed regions cost effective again) and on Giovanni Arrighi's concept of historical fixes of capitalism (according to which successive hegemonic powers in the world system develop particular subsidies for capital to stay mobile).

The aim is to extrapolate a historical anthropology of deindustrialisation based on the case study Mauritius.

Paper short abstract:

This presentation looks at the undoing of an industrial community in Norway and explores how deindustrialisation has re-created coping strategies in the local community. Faced with a deindustrialised future, ways of looking at the (industrial) past can be discerned in children's learning.

Paper long abstract:

In 2015 Rjukan–Notodden industrial heritage was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Shortly thereafter a political move was made to develop a learning resource about Rjukan–Notodden industrial heritage. Through ethnographic fieldwork, I have looked into how and why children in Notodden learn about the town’s industrial past and industrial heritage.

My findings suggest that in becoming industrial heritage and in becoming a World Heritage Site, a dominant storyline has been established which offers a narrative about an industrial golden age: a utopia or a heterotopia following Foucault (1991) perhaps? According to Foucault, heterotopias are upset representations of the world – the mirror image – both real and not real at the same time. As a World Heritage Site, Rjukan–Notodden can be viewed as such.

Looking at children’s learning, revealed how children were told and retold variations over a narrative which, in turn, pushed me towards the works of Greenwood (2003) and Somerville (2010) who argue for a pedagogy of the place. In learning from place children are faced with paradoxical and alternative stories; a contact zone of contestation that makes way for deep learning and critical thinking. Two skills or competencies that are very much needed in today’s world.

Thus, in the presentation, I aim to show how the anthropology of learning and the pedagogy of place offer valuable perspectives on the interplay between regional and global transformations – which can provide children with alternatives to dominant storylines and promote sustainable alternatives to the consumer/neoliberal economy.

Paper short abstract:

Practical knowledge gained through community-based environmental monitoring enables people not only to assert their rights, but also to verify the deindustrialization strategies. The paper shall outline aims of the ERICA project on environmental monitoring and initial results of pilot interviews.

Paper long abstract:

The fossil fuel industry, apart from being the major cause of climate change, also produces impacts on the local environment, including land degradation, waste production, water and air contamination and biodiversity loss. People living near oil, gas and lignite extraction sites are exposed to harmful effects of chemical emissions. However, in most cases there is a lack of independent and reliable information on the socio-environmental impacts of the fossil fuel industry. The need to address insufficient or unreliable information has led to the emergence of a global citizen science movement of community-based environmental monitoring. The capability to monitor the environment and the practical knowledge thus gained enables local communities not only to assert their rights in conflicts with energy companies, but also to verify the actions they undertake due to deindustrialization strategies. The paper shall outline assumptions of the ERICA (ERASMUS+) project on adult education in environmental monitoring and initial results of pilot interviews conducted in Konin Lignite Region in Poland - a territory covered by the Just Transition Plan.

Paper short abstract:

This paper delves into the profound impact of deindustrialization on Sounda, a once-thriving coal-based census town in Jharkhand, India. Using in-depth interviews and FGDs with key stakeholders, this paper examines the intricate relationship between deindustrialization and local life.

Paper long abstract:

This paper delves into the profound impact of deindustrialization on Sounda, a once-thriving coal-based census town in Jharkhand, India. Sounda's trajectory from a bustling economic hub, characterized by coal mining activity and vibrant local communities, to its current decline is a poignant example of the complex consequences of deindustrialization. The closure of all four coal mines in Sounda, driven by economic unviability and resource depletion, has caused a series of unprecedented challenges. The town, closely intertwined with the coal mining industry, now relies on the grim prospect of a single functioning coal siding. This study conducted 25 in-depth interviews and 03 focus group discussions involving diverse local stakeholders, including community members, political representatives, civil workers, and trade union leaders, to understand the complexities of deindustrialization in coal regions. The closures have led to mass migrations, unemployment, business closures, crumbling public infrastructure, and severed connectivity. The landscape is now a remnant of old industrial sites that stirs up memories of its vibrant past.

Nevertheless, communities are finding innovative ways to reconnect with the natural ecology amidst deindustrialization. Abandoned mining pits have become opportunities for fish culture, demonstrating some resilience in the face of industrial decline. This paper explores the multifaceted effects of deindustrialization in coal regions, unveiling the intricate relationship between industrial decline and local life. Additionally, it provides insights for future transitions away from coal, informing us on the impacts and navigating the challenges of deindustrialization.

Paper short abstract:

Conceptualising the growing rates of personal indebtedness as part and parcel of the broader processes of deindustrialization, this paper investigates how conditions of overindebtedness and precarious living affect political agency and action in one of the Czech Republic's deindustrializing regions.

Paper long abstract:

The Czech Republic has since its transition into capitalism undergone a complete socio-economic transformation, characterised by the processes of deindustrialization and privatization. Such large-scale restructuring of the economy and reterritorialization of power has left previously prosperous spaces suddenly disconnected from the global circuits of capital and care of the state. This has been experienced by the inhabitants of those spaces through dwindling public infrastructure, sharply declining living standards and an upsurge of various poverty industries. As a result, various populist movements have been on the rise, using the local sense of abandonment and economic hardship for political gains.

My contribution to this panel is based on my ongoing ethnographic fieldwork among debtors living in one of such de-industrializing regions in the Czech Republic. I conceptualise the growing rates of personal indebtedness as part and parcel of the broader processes of deindustrialization and semi-peripheral financialization, reflected in the boom-and-bust cycles of household debt, much of which took predatory and high-risk forms. I want to focus on the effects that the conditions of indebtedness and precarious living in the region have on political agency and actions of my interlocutors. To what extent are their conditions accepted as an outcome of individual wrongdoing and at what point do they start to be seen as a collective and structural issue? What political alternatives can be found in the region and how do they articulate solutions to the local problems? These are some of the questions that my paper sets out to address.

Paper short abstract:

This paper traces a longer history of energy transitions and recurrent industrial crisis in the sulcis area of Sardinia paying special attention to the role of labor and the various manifestations of the local and regional state in contentious negotiation between environmental and economic concerns.

Paper long abstract:

Multiple waves of deindustrialization have left the Sulcis area of South-Western Sardinia with some of the highest youth unemployment rates and the lowest per capita income of the country. Today, Sulcis sits at the very frontline of the energy transition. On the one hand, the area represents several of the “black” activities that we urgently need to move away from in to decarbonize the economy: the area has a long history of metal and coal mining and represents and heavy-industry exception to the otherwise service-oriented economy of Sardinian Island. On the other hand, the whole of Sardinia is currently experiencing a massive and increasingly contested international interest in renewable energy projects. This paper traces a longer history of energy transitions and recurrent industrial crisis in the sulcis area. From the forceful expansion of coal extraction under the ‘autarkic’ policy of 1930s Fascist Italy, through the post-war US-supported turn to oil, to current mining and industrial closure; reconversion plans and contested green investments. Through this arc of local history, the paper pays special attention to the role of labor and the various manifestations of the local and regional state in contentious negotiation between environmental and economic concerns.