Futures in the History of Deindustrialisation
Edited by Eloisa Betti, Liliosa Azara, Stefan Moitra, Francesca Sanna, Christian Wicke
Deindustrialisation has placed the societies affected in a state of crisis. When industrial closure threatened their very existence, established “horizons of expectations” were called into question, as new collective memories and visions of the future emerged. Deindustrialisation has therefore generated fears and hopes about what the future might hold and what could be done, individually or collectively, to come to terms with transformation. While the consequences of industrial restructuring may be considered traumatic, exposure to socioeconomic change has also opened up new ways of imagining the future as a space of possibilities. Individuals, communities, and political and social agents have engaged in envisioning future prospects, seeking ways to respond to closure and shape what is to come. This volume brings together historical studies of futures in deindustrialising regions of Italy, Germany, Poland, Spain, and the United States, demonstrating how historical actors – including political and administrative bodies, trade unions, artists, and educators – anticipated what lay ahead, from ecological sunrise to cultural dystopia.