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“It’s not a very certain future”: Emotion and infrastructure change in an industrial town

Gareth Thomas, Catherine Cherry, Chris Groves, Karen Henwood, Nick Pidgeon, Erin Roberts Orcid Logo

Geoforum, Volume: 132, Pages: 81 - 91

Swansea University Author: Erin Roberts Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1016/j.geoforum.2022.04.003

Abstract

Four decades on from the onset of deindustrialisation in the UK and other late-capitalist societies, industrial places are again emerging as key objects of policy discourse. Under the dual pressures of decarbonisation, and the recognition of ‘left behind’ regions as potential hotspots for feelings o...

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Published in: Geoforum
ISSN: 0016-7185
Published: Elsevier BV 2022
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa68532
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last_indexed 2025-01-24T20:45:02Z
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spelling 2025-01-24T14:24:12.8067972 v2 68532 2024-12-12 “It’s not a very certain future”: Emotion and infrastructure change in an industrial town 391f65540d6e8fe14c0180d015e5a841 0000-0003-4818-2926 Erin Roberts Erin Roberts true false 2024-12-12 BGPS Four decades on from the onset of deindustrialisation in the UK and other late-capitalist societies, industrial places are again emerging as key objects of policy discourse. Under the dual pressures of decarbonisation, and the recognition of ‘left behind’ regions as potential hotspots for feelings of political marginalisation, new strategies for clean growth are emerging, aiming to boost local economic and environmental performance. Presenting data produced via biographical interviews and deliberative workshops in Port Talbot, South Wales, we explore how experiences of life in one of the UK’s most significant manufacturing towns has shaped local feelings towards four place-based scenarios for industrial and energy systems decarbonisation. Drawing on the rich literatures detailing the cultural and emotional impacts of deindustrialisation, we illustrate how situated experiences of industrial dependence and decline shaped how Port Talbot residents made sense of visions for the town’s future. In so doing we show how, in the face of industrial decline, alternative aspects of place emerged as locus points of emotional and cultural identification, ‘public things’ (Honig, 2017) in which alternative hopes for the future are invested. As emergent policies for clean growth become enacted in concrete projects, we argue for a clearer focus on experiences of and relationships embedded in industrial places, to ensure such strategies meet the desires of local communities. Journal Article Geoforum 132 81 91 Elsevier BV 0016-7185 Deindustrialization; Deliberation; Decarbonisation; Energy systems; Lived experience; Public things 1 6 2022 2022-06-01 10.1016/j.geoforum.2022.04.003 COLLEGE NANME Biosciences Geography and Physics School COLLEGE CODE BGPS Swansea University Another institution paid the OA fee This research was funded by the Welsh Government through the European Regional Development fund as part of the FLEXIS project: https://www.flexis.wales/. Karen Henwood and Nick Pidgeon received part-funding from the UKRI Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre (IDRIC): EP/V027050/1. 2025-01-24T14:24:12.8067972 2024-12-12T09:44:48.7179969 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Geography Gareth Thomas 1 Catherine Cherry 2 Chris Groves 3 Karen Henwood 4 Nick Pidgeon 5 Erin Roberts 0000-0003-4818-2926 6 68532__33404__2dbffe5e447d4a75b3b23908717842ca.pdf 68532.VoR.pdf 2025-01-24T14:22:49.0681130 Output 634430 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2022 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CC BY license. true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title “It’s not a very certain future”: Emotion and infrastructure change in an industrial town
spellingShingle “It’s not a very certain future”: Emotion and infrastructure change in an industrial town
Erin Roberts
title_short “It’s not a very certain future”: Emotion and infrastructure change in an industrial town
title_full “It’s not a very certain future”: Emotion and infrastructure change in an industrial town
title_fullStr “It’s not a very certain future”: Emotion and infrastructure change in an industrial town
title_full_unstemmed “It’s not a very certain future”: Emotion and infrastructure change in an industrial town
title_sort “It’s not a very certain future”: Emotion and infrastructure change in an industrial town
author_id_str_mv 391f65540d6e8fe14c0180d015e5a841
author_id_fullname_str_mv 391f65540d6e8fe14c0180d015e5a841_***_Erin Roberts
author Erin Roberts
author2 Gareth Thomas
Catherine Cherry
Chris Groves
Karen Henwood
Nick Pidgeon
Erin Roberts
format Journal article
container_title Geoforum
container_volume 132
container_start_page 81
publishDate 2022
institution Swansea University
issn 0016-7185
doi_str_mv 10.1016/j.geoforum.2022.04.003
publisher Elsevier BV
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Geography{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Geography
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description Four decades on from the onset of deindustrialisation in the UK and other late-capitalist societies, industrial places are again emerging as key objects of policy discourse. Under the dual pressures of decarbonisation, and the recognition of ‘left behind’ regions as potential hotspots for feelings of political marginalisation, new strategies for clean growth are emerging, aiming to boost local economic and environmental performance. Presenting data produced via biographical interviews and deliberative workshops in Port Talbot, South Wales, we explore how experiences of life in one of the UK’s most significant manufacturing towns has shaped local feelings towards four place-based scenarios for industrial and energy systems decarbonisation. Drawing on the rich literatures detailing the cultural and emotional impacts of deindustrialisation, we illustrate how situated experiences of industrial dependence and decline shaped how Port Talbot residents made sense of visions for the town’s future. In so doing we show how, in the face of industrial decline, alternative aspects of place emerged as locus points of emotional and cultural identification, ‘public things’ (Honig, 2017) in which alternative hopes for the future are invested. As emergent policies for clean growth become enacted in concrete projects, we argue for a clearer focus on experiences of and relationships embedded in industrial places, to ensure such strategies meet the desires of local communities.
published_date 2022-06-01T05:49:01Z
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