Deindustrialization

ROUNDTABLE: NEW RESEARCH IN DEINDUSTRIALIZATION STUDIES
2025-04-24 09:30 - 11:30 (America/New_York) | Zoom
Journey from Poland to the American Midwest in our next roundtable, featuring research from seven DePOT affiliates and chaired by Steven High!
Thursday April 24th (9:30AM Eastern Time).
Register on Eventbrite to get the Zoom link and receive reminder emails ahead of the roundtable!
Chairperson: Steven High (Concordia University)
Yuan Yi (Concordia University) , “Deindustrialization: A Useful Category for Challenging Linear History.”
Anna Ruth Guildea (Scuola Normale Superiore), “Masculinity, Occupational Change, and Support for the Radical Right in Europe.”
Cory Haala (University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point), “Fighting Deindustrialization in the American Midwest, from Factory to Farm.”
Nora Küttel (University of Halle), “Unveiling the Emotional and Social Consequences of Deindustrialisation: The Case of East Germany’s Shipbuilding Industry.”
Mart Chmielewski (European University Institute), “Bra-Making and Postsocialist Transformation: Privatization, Global Capital, and the Reshaping of Industry in Central Poland”.
Monika Glosowitz (University of Silesia), “Narratives of Women from Coal Mining Families from Upper Silesian Coal Basin. An Artivist Research Project.”
Melissa Meade (Seton Hall University), “Digital Memories in Centralia, Pennsylvania and The Reshaping of Labor Narratives”

ROUNDTABLE: IN CONVERSATION WITH TIM STRANGLEMAN
2025-02-12 09:30 - 11:30 (America/New_York) | Zoom
Join his former students and colleagues to celebrate the career of Tim Strangleman, DePOT co-founder and author of many books on the sociology of deindustrialization.
Wednesday February 12 (9:30AM Eastern Time).
Register on Eventbrite to get the Zoom link and receive reminder emails ahead of the roundtable!
Sherry Lee Linkon, Georgetown University
Jefferson Cowie, Vanderbilt University
Gilda Zazzara, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
Thomas Wilson, University of Kent
Tim Strangleman, University of Kent

ROUNDTABLE: DEINDUSTRIALIZATION AND THE LEFT
2025-01-21 09:30 - 11:30 UTC | Zoom
View the event recording here
What happens to workers’ parties when work dries up? Deindustrialization has presented a profound challenge to parties of the left and centre-left, with their traditional base in the trade union movement becoming increasingly precarious. In this roundtable, DePOT affiliates will explore how deindustrialization affected the political left, how parties and organizations of the left responded to deindustrialization, and the future of how the political left might adapt to the post-industrial moment.
Tuesday January 21 (9:30AM Eastern Time).
Register on Eventbrite to get the Zoom link and receive reminder emails ahead of the roundtable!
Participants:

Gilda Zazzara, University of Ca’Foscari Venice
Fred Burrill, University of New Brunswick
Marion Fontaine, Sciences Po
Xavier Vigna, Université Paris-Nanterre
Indranil Chakraborty, Concordia University
Manuela Vinai, University of Turin
Graham Latham, Concordia University.

ROUNDTABLE: DEINDUSTRIALIZATION AND POPULISM
2024-12-09 09:30 - 11:30 UTC | Zoom
Brexit and the 2016 US presidential election threw “populism” into the spotlight. Populism, from both the left (Jean-Luc Melenchon, Bernie Sanders) and the right (Marine Le Pen, Donald Trump) has come to define the politics of deindustrializing societies. How do we make sense of this groundswell? Join DePOT as we explore populism and deindustrialization.
Wednesday December 9 (9:30AM Eastern Time).
Register on Eventbrite to get the Zoom link and receive reminder emails ahead of the roundtable!
Chair:
Amber Ward
Participants:

Filippo Sbrana, University for Foreigners of Perugia
Marion Fontaine, Science Po
Mike Makin-Waite, independent scholar
Manuela Vinai, University of Turin
Lachlan Mackinnon, Cape Breton University
Steven High, Concordia University.

ROUNDTABLE: DEINDUSTRIALIZATION, RACE, AND CASTE
2024-11-20 09:30 - 11:30 UTC | Zoom
Following the 2016 US presidential election, much ink has been spilled on the topic of the “white working class.” Conjured as the face of the US Rust Belt, whiteness has become synonymous with the “left behind” of deindustrialization, whereas figures of the “migrant” are operationalized to inflict blame. How then, have racialized communites been affected by deindustrialization, when whiteness is taken as a given? What might the experience of racialized communities, in the US, Canada, India and elsewhere, tell us about the process and aftermath of deindustrialization? Join DePOT affiliates as they share their work and discuss how race and caste figure into the landscape of deindustrialization studies.
Wednesday October 20 (9:30AM Eastern Time)
Register on Eventbrite to get the Zoom link and receive reminder emails ahead of the roundtable!
Chair:
Stefan Moitra
Participants:

James Rhodes, Hiram College
Bharat Sundararajan, University of St. Andrews
Sherry Lee Linkon, Georgetown University
Rémy Chhem, 2024-25 DePOT Artist in Residence
Greg Wilson, University of Akron

ROUNTABLE: SETTLER COLONIALISM AND DEINDUSTRIALIZATION
2024-10-09 09:30 - 11:30 UTC | Zoom
In Canada, the United States, Australia, and other settler colonies, the dispossession of Indigenous land is integral to histories of industrialization. Resource industries like forestry, mining and oil are inextricably tied to the exploitation of Indigenous peoples. How then, do scholars of deindustrialization respond, when the “good jobs” lost during industrial closure were directly implicated in the ongoing dispossession of Indigenous lands? Join DePOT affiliates as they propose new directions for working through this tension in deindustrialization studies.
Wednesday October 9 (9:30AM Eastern Time).
Register on Eventbrite to get the Zoom link and receive reminder emails ahead of the roundtable!
Chair:
Piyusha Chatterjee
Participants

Peter Thompson, University of New Brunswick,
Myriam Guillemette, Université du Québec à Montréal,
Raechele Lovell, 2024-25 DéPOT Artist in Residence,
Lachlan Mackinnon, Cape Breton University,
Petra Dolata, University of Calgary

Gender, Family, and Deindustrialization — DePOT annual conference
2024-06-25 09:00 - 2024-06-26 17:30 UTC | Strathclyde University, 40 George St (Graham Hills Building), Glasgow
In deindustrialization studies, representations of industrial closures have often dwelled on the ways that masculinity is threatened or reconfigured through the experience of job loss and on the erosion of collective ties and spaces linked to the world of work. Conversely, women have appeared only on the fringes of the literature on deindustrialization, sometimes in their capacities as wives and mothers, but increasingly also as displaced workers in their own right. DePOT seeks to bring the history of deindustrialisation into productive dialogue with histories of youth, the body, health, the home and the caring economy.
This conference, the culmination of our project’s Gender, Family, and Deindustrialization research initiative, features researchers from a variety of disciplinary and regional backgrounds. Registration is free. With a program of three concurrent panels, two keynotes, and a plenary with DePOT’s artists-in-residence planned, we are excited to see you in Glasgow!

Organizing committee: Jackie Clarke, Arthur McIvor, Rebekah Chatellier, Piyusha Chatterjee, and Yvonne McFadden
Links and resources

Registration link
FINAL conference program
AccessAble page for the University of Strathclyde
AccessAble page for the Graham Hills Building

Depot Summer Institute: Difficult histories of gender and community
2024-06-20 09:00 - 2024-06-22 17:00 UTC | Queen’s University Belfast
DePOT Summer Institutes bring together graduate students and postdoctoral fellows as well as select faculty and partners to workshop their latest research in a small supportive setting. Summer Institutes are timed to occur on the eve of the project’s thematic workshops and assembly in order to encourage participants to attend these as well. It is an opportunity to forge connection with other deindustrialization researchers and receive critical feedback on work in progress.
This year, we will be coming together at Queen’s University Belfast for an exciting line-up of student talks, discussion plenaries, workshops, and walking tours of the city. On June 23, we will be traveling to Glasgow for DePOT’s project assembly and annual conference.
The Summer Institute is open to DePOT-affiliated students, postdoctoral fellows, researchers, and partners. Please use the link on Basecamp to register or email deindustrialization@concordia.ca for more. We’re excited to share the program shortly!
Organizing committee: Sinead Burns, Adna Camdzic, Shonagh Joice, and Naomi Petropoulos
Click here to download the final program!

Seeing from the South: Deindustrialization in Latin America and the Caribbean
2024-04-19 09:30 - 11:00 UTC | Zoom
This roundtable gathers scholars and practitioners from Latin America and the Caribbean to discuss the region’s experiences and processes of deindustrialization. The panel discussion will examine various topics linked to deindustrialization, including industrial heritage, environmental waste, gender, political participation, and everyday life, among other issues.
Register on Google Forms to get the Zoom link and receive reminder emails ahead of the roundtable!
Chairperson: Magdalena Novoa, University of Illinois.
Speakers:

Marcos Pérez, University of Washington and Lee
Daniela Morales, University of Illinois
Marion Steiner y Pamela Fuentes, Universidad de Chile and Placilla Museum
Karen Sanabria, Technological University José Antonio Echeverría de la Habana
Camilo Contreras Delgado, Colegio de la Frontera Norte de México

Roundtable: Deindustrializing Workers and Places
2024-03-29 09:30 - 11:00 UTC | Zoom
Deindustrializing Workers and Places
Friday March 29th at 9:30am (EST)
Join us as six DePOT-affiliated researchers share their work on the deindustrializing places and people they study across six different industrial and regional contexts. The event is free, but registration is required to get the Zoom link.
Chair: Greg Wilson, University of Akron
Speakers:

Amber Ward, “Cultural motifs in deindustrialising Central Fife, Scotland, 1940s-1990s.”
Valerio Caruso, “The Politicisation of Environmental Issues in the Deindustrial Areas of Naples”
Bharat Sundararajan, “Deregulation and Nationalisation: debates around industrial closure in Pondicherry’s textile mills (1954-2000).”
James Ferns, “Occupational Masculinity and Emasculation among Reemployed Scottish Heavy Industry Workers.”
Zoé Konsbruck, “Deindustrialization in Luxembourg’s steel towns, 1970-1990”.
Steven High, “Testing the ‘Failure of the Left’ Thesis: The Ontario NDP Confronts the Industrial Crisis, 1990-95.”

Labour in the shadows: A cultural event and walking tour of Chabanel district in Montreal
2024-03-17 13:00 UTC | Quebec
Labour in the shadows: A cultural event and walking tour of Chabanel district in Montreal
Time: Sunday, March 17, 2024: 1pm, sharp!
Location: Ateliers Belleville, 545 Legendre Ouest, Suite 109
Please register by emailing Stefan at: stefan.christoff@gmail.com
You are invited to a community walking tour in Montréal’s garment district (Cité de la Mode) that will largely revolve around Chabanel street. This area of the city is being directly targeted by the Projet Montreal administration for gentrification, largely through the opening of funding for the transformation of former textile industry buildings into artist studios. It is now essential to understand the political textures of this area and the history of grassroots labour struggles that have taken place in the area.
This event will start with a cultural event in Suite 109 at Ateliers Belleville and then a walking tour in the district. There will be a set of performances in Ateliers Belleville and then presentations throughout the walking tour, facilitated and coordinated by Stefan Christoff with support from the Concordia based research lab on Media and Migration—Raah and is taking place in collaboration with the Immigrant Workers Centre (IWC).
This popular walking tour aims to contextualize the shifts in industrial textile production in the city, the intentional outsourcing of garment sector jobs by Québec corporations who have utilized Quebec regulations that favor outsourcing to shift major production to locations in the global south where workplace labour conditions are more favorable for corporate profit. Specific existing corporations such as Lamour Inc. faced in recent years grassroots pressure and organizing for workplace justice.
Background on Lamour:
In 2007, immigrant workers at the Montreal-based garment manufacturer Lamour were “unceremoniously laid-off” after having worked at the company for decades. As the company prepared to shutter its domestic production activities, Lamour gradually laid off nearly 500 of its Montreal-based workers starting in 2006. The gradual nature of layoffs was strategic: had Lamour decided to close its factory all at once, they would have had to pay their workers collective layoff benefits. During this period, workers publicly denounced the abysmal labour conditions at Lamour, where they had been locked inside the factory during the night shift, forced to eat meals at their workstations, and were not paid when their machines broke down and they failed to meet their quotas. And, to worsen Lamour employees’ situation, their union was widely understood to be a pro-management or company union that did not advocate for workers’ real demands.
Over 2007 and 2008, laid off workers and community organizers at the Immigrant Workers Centre (IWC) engaged in a struggle to gain compensation for laid off Lamour employees. They jointly pressured the Labour Relations Tribunal (Tribunal administratif du travail) and the Labour Standards Board (Commission des normes, de l’équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail, CNESST), demanding that the layoffs be treated as collective so that workers could receive fair compensation. In the end, many Lamour employees received an increased benefits package.
You can learn more about Lamour through Lauren Laframboise and Stefan Christoff’s podcast “Voices of the Immigrant Worker Centre on Deindustrialization and Dissent in Montreal’s Garment District.“

Speaker / performer bios:

Nikczar Aguirre is a community organizer and member of the Immigrant Workers Centre. Nikczar is active within the Filipino diaspora and writes songs that speak to struggles for justice in Canada, the Philippines and beyond.
Philippe Battikha, musician, cultural worker and member of Ateliers Belleville.
Mostafa Henaway, a Canadian-born Egyptian, is a long-time community organizer at the Immigrant Workers Centre in Montreal, where he has been organizing for justice for immigrant/migrant workers for over two decades. He is also a researcher and PhD candidate at Concordia University.
Lauren Laframboise is a PhD student at the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling in the Department of History at Concordia University, and a student affiliate of the Deindustrialization and the Politics of Our Time (DePOT) project. Her research explores the impacts of deindustrialization in the apparel industry in Montréal and New York City. She is also the External Affairs Officer for the Concordia Research and Education Workers’ Union (CREW–CSN).
Martín Rodríguez, transmission artist, educator, and member of Atelier Belleville.
Joseph Sannicandro, a sound artist, researcher and professor at State University of New York at Purchase.
Gaurav Sharma is a community organizer and artist living in Montréal. Over the last years Gaurav has been an organizer at the Immigrant Workers Centre and has particularly focused on creating theatre within the South Asian diaspora, creating multiple plays that speak to migrant worker experiences.
Yumna Siddiqi, a member of the IWC board and an associate professor of English at Middlebury College

Roundtable: De-Industrial Heritage
2024-02-29 09:30 - 23:00 UTC | Zoom
What does deindustrialization studies have to offer heritage studies—and what can scholars of deindustrialization learn from the world of heritage? Six DePOT student, postdoctoral, and research affiliates share their research on de-industrial heritage.
Register on Google Forms to get the Zoom link and receive reminder emails ahead of the roundtable!

Chair: Steven High

Presenters:

Brian Rosa, Autonomous University of Barcelona: “The “Disciplining of Memory”? Narrating Traces of the Industrial Past in Barcelona”
Paula Fernández Álvarez, University Complutense of Madrid — “Post-industrial ruins and fossil imaginaries. Worker memory, spaces and visual culture of coal extractivism”
Guilherme Pozzer, University of Sheffield — “Crafting the Past: Empowering Communities through Creative Writing, Visual Narratives, Memory, and Place-Making”
Myriam Guillemette, Université du Québec à Montréal — “Sundown Towns phenomenon in Canadian planned communities; recognition of the industrial contribution of the Indigenous Peoples of Manitoba”
Jorge Magaz-Molina, University of Alcalà — “Climate action, carbon deindustrialization and heritage concerns in Northwestern Spain”
Laura Littlefair, Northumbria University — “From Cradle to Grave: Recontextualising the Deindustrialised Railway Town”

Roundtable: The Political Economy of Deindustrialization
2023-12-12 09:30 - 11:00 (America/Toronto) | Zoom
The Political Economy of Deindustrialization
Join us for a roundtable on The Political Economy of Deindustrialization, which will showcase the political economy section of the forthcoming Routledge International Handbook on Deindustrialization Studies, edited by Tim Strangleman.
Chairperson: Steven High, Concordia University
Moderators:

Fred Burrill (Cape Breton University) and Matthew Penney (Concordia University), “Bringing Marxian Political Economy Back into Deindustrialization Studies.”
Jason Hackworth (University of Toronto), “The racial dimensions of (de)industrialization.”
Lachlan MacKinnon (Cape Breton University), “The Region as an Analytical Framework for Deindustrialization Studies.”
Marion Fontaine (Sciences Po) and Xavier Vigna (Université Paris Nanterre), “Challenging and Politicizing Deindustrialization?”
Alice Mah (University of Glasgow), “Anticipating Just Transitions: Ecological Crisis and Future Deindustrialization.”

Get the Zoom link and sign up for by filling in this Google Form.
The roundtable will be filmed and uploaded to our YouTube channel.

The Thorncliffe-Elsecar Tramway: Documentary Screening and Q&A with Joshua Daniels and Lucie Morisset
2023-09-20 09:30 - 23:00 (America/Halifax) | Quebec
Join DePOT for a digital screening of Joshua Daniels’s film “The Thorncliffe-Elsecar Tramway,” followed by a Q&A with Joshua moderated by Lucie Morisset.
The documentary follows the route of the now-lost Thorncliffe-Elsecar Tramway in South Yorkshire, covering the history, route and importance of the tramway track, as well as the key historic sites along the way and oral history interviews of those who live in the surrounding areas.
Joshua Daniels is a historian and filmmaker from Rotherham, England. He has an MA in Public History from Royal Holloway, University of London, and is also a trained oral historian, presenter, and videographer. His published research includes the history of follies in Rotherham and has done work for Wentworth Woodhouse, Yorkshire Society, and Elsecar Heritage Centre. His main interest of history is in the industrial heritage of Yorkshire.
Click here to register.

DePOT Annual Conference: The Politics of Industrial Closure
2023-06-23 - 2023-06-24 | Cape Breton University, 1250 Grand Lake Road, Sydney, Nova Scotia, B1M 1A2, Canada
Le français suit:
The DePOT Politics of Industrial Closure conference will focus primarily on the “how” and “why” of mine, mill and factory closings, the wider restructuring of the international division of labour, as well as the societal debates about the nature of economic change. Political economy concerns are therefore central as are studies focusing on working-class resistance, concession and loss. We are also interested in the beginnings of industrial heritage recognition as well as arts-based responses to industrial closure.
While registration on Eventbrite is encouraged to help with conference organizing, community walk-ins are welcome and encouraged!
If you have any questions about the conference or your registration, please email deindustrialization@concordia.ca
Keep an eye on our website for a preview of the program and other news.
You can find the final program here.
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La conférence du projet DéPOT sur “La politique de la fermeture industrielle” se concentrera sur le “comment” et le “pourquoi” des fermetures de mines, de moulins et d’usines, ainsi que sur la restructuration plus large de la division internationale du travail et les débats sociétaux concernant la nature du changement économique. Les questions d’économie politique sont donc centrales, tout comme les études portant sur la résistance, les concessions et les pertes de la classe ouvrière.
Nous encourageons les participants à s’inscrire sur Eventbrite en avance pour nous aider à planifier la conférence, mais nous encourageons les membres de la communauté à venir même sans billet!
Si vous avez des questions sur la conférence ou votre inscription, veuillez nous rejoindre à deindustrialization@concordia.ca
Gardez un oeil sur notre site web pour voir un aperçu du programme.
Vous pouvez consulter le programme finalisé ici.

Deindustrialization and Reindustrialization in South Asia: Enclaves of Inequality, Precarity, and Prosperity
2023-05-18 09:00 - 11:00 UTC | Zoom
Deindustrialization and Reindustrialization in South Asia: Enclaves of Inequality, Precarity, and Prosperity
South Asia experienced one of the fastest growths in the global economic space before the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020. The uneven and combined development of the region’s nation-states created an offshore service market for the developed North. This seamlessly established the capital flow from the global North to South Asia.
In South Asia, it is the simultaneous deindustrialization and reindustrialization that has integrated the region with the financial and industrial world.
While the region needs the North’s technology (e.g. big data, artificial intelligence & cloud computing) as well as capital (e.g. pension and hedge funds), the North leverages the cheap labour and natural resources of the region to get cheap consumer goods from and creates low-wage employment in the South Asian countries. One complements the other. This is one of the vital conditions in keeping the North’s ‘new economy’ going.
However, the stellar growth of the service sector in South Asia has led to the closure or stagnation of its organized manufacturing industries. Optimum use of technology, cheap labour from the countryside, and cheap capital from the global North are the basis of service sector-led reindustrialization in South Asia.
The round table will interrogate the historical conditions that made the region a service sector hub at the expense of stagnation and closure of the manufacturing sector and how it has impacted the everyday living experience of the labouring population.
Register on Eventbrite to get the Zoom link.
Organizer: Dr Indranil Chakraborty
Moderator: Dr Piyusha Chatterjee
Speakers:

Dr. Anirban Acharya, Professor of Practice, Political Science, Le Moyne College, Syracuse, USA
Dr. Subho Basu, Associate Professor, History and Classical Studies, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
Azizur Russel, Doctoral Candidate, History and Classical Studies, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
Sartaj Khan, Independent Researcher, Karachi, Pakistan
Dr. Atreyee Majumdar, Associate Professor, Social Sciences, National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, India
Dr. Indranil Chakraborty, Horizon Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of History, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada
Dr Dipak Gyawali, Social Sciences Baha, Kathmandu, Nepal

Roundtable: Energy Transitions and Deindustrialization
2023-03-15 10:00 - 12:00 (Asia/Karachi) | Zoom
Current discussions around job losses in fossil fuel industries in North America and Europe and a just transition in response to climate change have called attention once again to the close relationship between deindustrialization, industrial transformation, and energy transitions. This panel will examine the role of energy in deindustrialization and industrial transformation processes, addressing both conceptual approaches and empirical case studies from various countries. Panelists will revisit past examples of deindustrialization, especially in coal mining, to reframe them as energy transitions and engage more explicitly with their energy histories and stories. Events in the 1970s, including but not limited to the multiple energy crises which have led to the emergence of the political concept of energy transition, serve as examples for the complex interplay between labour, environmentalism and energy production. Fifty years later, we still discuss energy transitions but do not necessarily agree on how it should be happening and how we support workers who will lose their jobs as a consequence of these major transformations of energy systems which are also always inherently social systems.
Register on Eventbrite to get the Zoom link!
Please note: This online roundtable will be recorded and later uploaded to DePOT’s YouTube channel.
Speakers

Anna Bettini, University of Calgary
Petra Dolata, University of Calgary
William Gillies, Concordia University
Jeff Manual, University of Southern Illinois Edwardsville, Fulbright Canada Research Chair, University of Calgary
Chad Montrie, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Fulbright Canada Research Chair, University of Calgary
Robert Suits, University of Edinburgh
Amber Ward, University of St. Andrews

Deindustrializing Eastern Europe
2023-01-13 09:00 - 23:00 (Asia/Karachi) | Zoom
After the collapse of Communism in East Central and Eastern Europe, most countries transitioned rapidly to liberal capitalist regimes. This transition process was often characterized by neoliberal strategies for transitioning which resulted in accelerated processes of deindustrialization, as many of the industries that operated under Communism either were not profitable under capitalist market conditions or were bought up and subsequently destroyed by their western competitors. This panel will examine deindustrialization processes in post-Communist countries and ask about their politics. Furthermore, the panel will also examine to which degree deindustrialization was followed by industrial heritage inititatives or whether the vanished industries were quickly demolished with little material heritage still reminding people of their previous existence. What memories of an industrial past and of deindustrialization processes exist in various East European countries and can we see differences and similarities between them. Among our panelists are experts from Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and the successor states of the former Yugoslavia.
Chairperson: Stefan Berger, Institute for Social Movements, Ruhr University Bochum, and Juliane Tomann, University of Regensburg
Speakers:

Magda Rez-Wozniak, University of Warsaw
Joanna Wawrzyniak, Head of the Social Memory Laboratory at the Institute of Sociology, University of Warsaw.
Gyorgyi Nemeth, University of Miskolc, Hungary
Tibor Valuch, Research chair at the Center for Social Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences Centre for Excellence
Andrea Pokludova, University of Ostrava, Department of History and Center for Economic and Social History
Ulf Brunnbauer, Director of the Institute for East and Southeast European Studies and chair of Southeast and East European History at the University of Regensburg

Reserve your tickets on Eventbrite!
If you’re in Montreal, you can join us at COHDS at Concordia University to watch the roundtable.

New Approaches to Deindustrialization Studies
2022-12-06 09:30 - 23:30 (America/New_York) | Zoom
The DePOT partnership continues to grow as faculty and PhD students affiliate with the project. These new team members enable the project to make wider geographic connections as well as deepen our research in our core study area of six countries. This virtual roundtable showcases some of their work-in-progress.
Register on Eventbrite to attend this event on Zoom.
Chairperson: Sean O’Connell, Queen’s University Belfast
Presenters:
Lisa Taylor, Leeds Beckett University. “Losing a father in an ex-industrial landscape.”
Maria Beatriz Andreotti, University of São Paulo. “Contributions of the Brazilian case in terms of deindustrialization”
Michael Bianchi, Université de Liège. “On the possibilities of life among the ruins of industry, political stakes of the valorization of abandoned lands in the country of Charleroi.”
Peter Thompson, Carleton University. “The Politics of Deindustrialization in ‘The Birthplace of New Scotland.’”
Sahar Ghasemshahi, l’Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). “Reviewing deindustrialization in Abadan as the glory of Fordist development of IRAN.”
Seana Irvine, Trent University. “Remaking Industrial Landscapes for the Inclusive City.”
Tom Wilson, University of Kent. “Sustainable Industrial Culture in a Deindustrialising District: The Case of Chatham Docks”

DePOT Podcast Live Recording "Town Called Malice: Gender, Industrial Closure and Billy Elliot"
2022-10-28 16:30 - 18:00 UTC | 4th Space, 1400 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W., Montreal, QC, H3G 1M8, Canada
The DePOT Podcast will be recording a live episode from Concordia University’s 4th Space on October 28, from 4:30-6:00 PM. Fred Burrill will host a discussion on the relationship between deindustrialization and gender with Montreal-based students Amanda Whitt, Lauren Laframboise, Liam Devitt, and Amber Ward who is visiting Montreal from Scotland!
They’ll be discussing new ideas and frameworks for researching deindustrialization, sharing how these influence their own research, and problematizing the neoliberal depictions of deindustrialization that loom large in popular culture.
This is a fully hybrid event: swing by if you’re in Montreal (doors open at 4:00) or head over to 4th Space’s website to register to attend on Zoom meeting or watch along on Youtube.
Click here to listen to past episodes of the DePOT podcast here.

Where did all the jobs go? A CIH and DePOT Roundtable
2022-10-21 12:00 - 13:30 UTC | Quebec
Where did all the jobs go? What the history of deindustrialization can tell us about working-class survival in the face of economic change
In the midst of global ecological crisis, working-class communities formed around resource extractive industries face an uncertain future. What lessons can be learned from the experience of diverse working-class areas across Canada and the Western world who have navigated the treacherous waters of deindustrialization in earlier periods, and who continue to live in the aftermath of shutdowns?
Moderator: Jim Ellis, Director of the Calgary Institute for the Humanities (CIH).
Presenters:
Anna Bettini (Postdoctoral research associate at the Calgary Institute for Humanities at the University of Calgary)
F﻿red Burrill (Postdoctoral researcher at Cape Breton University)
L﻿achlan MacKinnon (Canada Research Chair (Tier II) In Post-Industrial Communities at Cape Breton University)
L﻿auren Laframboise (PhD student, Concordia University)
Petra Dolata (Associate Professor of History at the University of Calgary and Scholar in Residence (2019-2023) at the Calgary Institute for the Humanities)
T﻿his roundtable will be fully hybrid: join us at the University of Calgary’s Department of History (Social Sciences Building, SS623, no tickets required), or register on Eventbrite to join us on Zoom.
The Zoom link will be circulated to everyone who registered two weeks before the event. Please note that this Zoom meeting will be recorded and updated to DePOT’s YouTube page.

Nostalgia - a reassessment in the era of austerity
2022-10-10 10:00 - 12:00 (America/Halifax) | Zoom
This roundtable brings together scholars to focus on the role, and representation, of nostalgia in deindustrialisation studies. In their paradigm shifting piece, Cowie and Heathcott (2003) urged us to ‘move beyond’ smokestack nostalgia and tales of victimisation through closure. However, 20 years later, this perspective requires revisiting. Across the deindustrialising world, areas formerly built-up around industry continue to suffer from multiple deprivations in: crime; poverty; poor environment; addiction; unemployment; poor health, and more. In this roundtable, we consider how a reassessment of nostalgic reflections, and their meanings, can contribute to our understandings of experience in deindustrialisation’s half-life across generations. Taken together, they offer fresh insights into how we can reconnect the history of deindustrialisation with the contemporary experience of those communities worst impacted.
You can get your Zoom tickets on the event’s Eventbrite page.

Chairs/Organisers: Dr Hilary Orange (Swansea University) and Dr Andy Clark (Newcastle University)
Presenters:

Andy Clark, Newcastle University
Fred Burrill, Cape Breton University
Jackie Clarke, University of Glasgow
Sinead Burns, Queen’s University Belfast
Stefan Berger, Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum
Magdalena Novoa, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Ewan Gibbs, University of Glasgow

Co-sponsors: DePOT and CHART (Centre for Heritage Research and Training), Swansea University
If you are joining us on Zoom, please note that the event will be recorded.

Book Launch: Deindustrializing Montreal by Steven High
2022-08-28 13:00 - 15:00 UTC | Les Sans-Taverne – Coop et Brasserie Artisanale, 1900 Rue le Ber, Montréal, QC, H3K 2A4, Canada
Book Launch: Deindustrializing Montreal by Steven High
Join us for the launch of Steven High’s new book, Deindustrializing Montreal: Entangled Histories of Race, Residence, and Class.

About this event

Steven High’s new book Deindustrializing Montreal explores the history of Little Burgundy and Pointe Saint-Charles through the oral histories of long-term residents. It includes over 200 historic photographs and other illustrations as well as the art-work of Emanuelle Dufour, Amina Jalabi, and Josh Toal. We learn what it was like to grow up in the two neighbourhoods before the factories closed and how people experienced the effects of urban renewal, factory closures, and gentrification.
Join us in-person for this free event Sunday August 28th (1-3pm) at Batiment 7’s Les Sans Taverne (1900 rue Le Ber) in Pointe-Saint-Charles. It is wheelchair-accessible and has a large patio for maximum COVID-19 safety.
David Austin, one of Canada’s foremost scholars of the Black Radical Tradition, will also say a few words.
We hope you can make it!
Click here to order the book at McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Click here to register for the event.

Transnationalizing Deindustrialization Studies Conference
2022-08-17 19:00 - 2022-08-20 17:30 (Europe/Berlin) | Quebec
Transnationalizing Deindustrialization Studies: Deindustrialization and the Politics of Our Time (DePOT) 2022 Conference
August 17-20, 2022, beginning at 9am (GMT+2/Berlin Time)
The program for DePOT’s Transnationalizing Deindustrialization Studies conference is now available. The inter-disciplinary conference will be taking place in the Ruhr in Germany from August 17-20. All are welcome to attend, and registration is free. For more information, please download our PDF. To register, please click HERE.
The conference will begin with an open public roundtable on Wednesday, August 17 at 7pm in Dortmund titled “Industrial Heritage for whom? Deindustrialization and the Politics of Our Time”
The following two days will be broken down into twelve sessions between August 18th and 19th that include:

Rethinking Industrialization
The Politics of Industrial Closure
Gendering Industrialization
Deindustrializing Cities
Worker Displacement and Resistance
Political Economy of Industrialization
Transnational Industrial Heritage Politics
Rural and Small Town Deindustrialization
Traces, Heritage and Material Culture
The Music, Media and Discourse of Deindustrialization
Writing Deindustrialization Workshop
Artifact and Material Culture Workshop

Additionally, on August 20th you will be able to choose one of three options for a Guided Tour:

UNESCO World Heritage Zeche Zollverein, incl. Ruhr Museum, Essen
Gasometer Oberhausen, St. Antony Hütte, Siedlung Eisenheim
Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord, Duisburg Innenhafen

Special thanks to DePOT’s Ruhr Partners: Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum; Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (German Trade Union Confederation); Fritz-Hüser-Institut; Institute for Social Movements, Ruhr-Universität Bochum; LWL-Industriemuseum/Westphalian State Museum of Industrial Heritage; RVR – Regionalverband Ruhr; and the Ruhr Museum.

DEINDUSTRIALIZING ITALY
2022-06-07 10:00 - 12:00 (America/Halifax) | Quebec
DEINDUSTRIALIZING ITALY
June 7, 2022 – 10am Eastern (4pm in Italy )
REGISTER HERE
For forty years, deindustrialization in Italy has been portrayed as a specter, a threat, a risk – hardly ever as a reality or a fact. The country remains tightly bound to its identity as a manufacturing nation, which has managed to overcome the crises of Fordism thanks to its dense fabric of highly specialized small and medium-sized enterprises. However, at the same time, deindustrialization has been ongoing: factories, methods of production, and work cultures have disappeared, often without conflict, memory or research. It is only in the 21st century that these changes and their consequences have begun to take hold, and a genealogy and map of Italian deindustrialization has begun to be drawn up. At present, industrial crisis mainly takes the form of the abandonment of Italian facilities by multinational corporations that took over from state-owned enterprises and national business groups during the wave of globalization and privatization in the 1990s.
This roundtable brings together researchers that study deindustrialization beyond the traditional heartlands of big industry, highlighting the links between global processes and the persistence of local identities as a resource for resistance and redefinition of the meaning of work. In Italy, deindustrialization is an ongoing story in a dual sense, representing continued economic change and a history that is beginning to be written.

Presenters:
Filippo Sbrana (University for Foreigners of Perugia)
Valerio Caruso (University of Torino-University of Firenze)
Eloisa Betti (University of Bologna)
Tom Baker (University of Bristol)
Alberto Prunetti (writer, Piombino, Toscana)
Bruno Settis (Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa)
Discussant: Stefano Musso (University of Torino)
Chair: Gilda Zazzara (Universita Ca’Foscari Venezia)

Photo: Collettivo Gkn © Andrea Sawyerr.

La désindustrialisation en France
2022-01-28 09:00 - 11:00 (America/New_York) | Quebec
La désindustrialisation en France
Register here.

January 28, 2022 – 9am EST (3pm CET)

The study of deindustrialization in France is flourishing with new books, special issues, and dissertations coming out regularly. The DePOT panel will consider this new scholarship and situate it within the transnational field. The panel will be in French but many of the presentations will be subtitled in English – thus bridging the language divide. It therefore represents a good opportunity for all of us to engage with the French scholarship.

With presentations from:
Marion Fontaine
Pascal Raggi
Jackie Clarke
Renaud Becot
Pierre Toussenot
Théo Georget
Serena Boncompagni
Xavier Vigna, discussant
Chaired by Fred Burrill

Photo: Site of the closed Moulinex factory in Cormelles-le-Royal, showing the words “no to closure” spray-painted on the building during the struggle against the plant’s closure in 2001. Photo by Jackie Clarke, 2010.

deindustrialization.org | @deindustrialpol

CURATING AND ARCHIVING DEINDUSTRIALIZATION
2021-11-19 10:00 - 12:00 (America/Toronto) | Quebec
DePOT’s Fall 2021 Roundtable Series: Rethinking Deindustrialization Studies
This roundtable series invites us to revisit our understanding of the field of deindustrialization studies. Two sessions expand the geographic imaginary from the old industrial heartlands of Western Europe and North America. Another asks us to make gender analysis more central. The final session brings curatorial and archival knowledge into the conversation.
Friday November 19th, 10:00-12:00 (Eastern Standard Time)
This roundtable will showcase practice-based knowledge of museum curators and working-class history archivists who are in DePOT partner organizations.
Register here. This event will be held through Zoom. The event will be taking place in English, with presentations in French translated to English via closed captions. If you have any additional access needs please contact the organizer.

Chairperson: Hilary Orange, University of Swansea

Timo Hauge (Regionalverband Ruhr)
Katarzyna Nogueira (Ruhr University)
Rebecca Dolgoy & Erin Secord (Ingenium Canada)
Marcelle Wilson (Steel Museum)
Stefano Agnoletto & Roberta Garruccio (Fondazione ISEC)

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Cover Image: Portal of the machine hall at the former Zollern Colliery. Photo Courtesy of LWL-Industriemuseum.

TOWARDS A GLOBAL DEINDUSTRIALIZATION STUDIES
2021-10-15 10:00 - 12:00 UTC | Quebec
DePOT’s Fall 2021 Roundtable Series: Rethinking Deindustrialization Studies
This roundtable series invites us to revisit our understanding of the field of deindustrialization studies. Two sessions expand the geographic imaginary from the old industrial heartlands of Western Europe and North America. Another asks us to make gender analysis more central. The final session brings curatorial and archival knowledge into the conversation.

Friday October 15 10:00am-12:00pm (EST)
Co-organized with the Global Development Institute and Manchester Urban Institute initiative.
Register here. This event will take place through Zoom. The event will be taking place in English, with presentations in French translated to English via closed captions. If you have any additional access needs please contact the organizer.

Additionally, here is the video presentation of Max Rousseau and Tarik Harroud. An English and French transcription of their presentation can be viewed here.

Chairperson: Stefan Berger, Ruhr University – Bochum

Seth Schindler, University of Manchester, will speak about Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Max Rousseau
Tarik Harroud
Neha Sami and Shriya Anand, Indian Institute for Human Settlements, will speak about Bangalore, India.
Xuefei Ren, Michigan State University, will speak about Harbin, China.
Magdalena Novoa Echaurren, University of Illinois, will speak about Chile.
Owen Crankshaw, University of Bristol, will speak about Johannesburg, South Africa.
Anna Calori, University of Jena, will speak about the former Yugoslavia.
Azat Gündoğan from Florida State University will speak about Istanbul, Turkey.

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Cover Image: Demonstration by Réhon steelworkers, France 1984. Photo: Philippe Piacentini.

GENDERING DEINDUSTRIALIZATION STUDIES
2021-10-01 10:00 - 12:00 UTC | Quebec
DePOT’s Fall 2021 Roundtable Series: Rethinking Deindustrialization Studies (Part 2)
This roundtable series invites us to revisit our understanding of the field of deindustrialization studies. Two sessions expand the geographic imaginary from the old industrial heartlands of Western Europe and North America. Another asks us to make gender analysis more central. The final session brings curatorial and archival knowledge into the conversation.
Friday October 1st 10:00-12:00 (Eastern Standard Time)
Register here. This event will be held through Zoom. The event will be taking place in English, with presentations in French translated to English via closed captions. If you have any additional access needs please contact the organizer.

RECORDING:

Co-Chairs: Arthur McIvor, University of Strathclyde; Jackie Clarke, University of Glasgow.

Naomi Petropoulos, Queen’s University Belfast.
Rory Stride, University of Strathclyde.
Lauren Laframboise, Concordia University.
Rebekah Chatellier, University of Strathclyde.
Marion Henry, Sciences Po Paris and University of Strathclyde
Amber Ward, University of St. Andrew’s
Andy Clark, Newcastle University.

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Cover Image: Workers in the textile mill of Industrias Unidas S.A., Ilopango, 1956. Photo courtesy of World Bank Group/Paul Sanche.

DEINDUSTRIALIZING AUSTRALIA
2021-09-16 06:00 - 08:00 (America/Toronto) | Quebec
DePOT’s Fall 2021 Roundtable Series: Rethinking Deindustrialization Studies
This roundtable series invites us to revisit our understanding of the field of deindustrialization studies. Two sessions expand the geographic imaginary from the old industrial heartlands of Western Europe and North America. Another asks us to make gender analysis more central. The final session brings curatorial and archival knowledge into the conversation.
Thursday September 16th 6:00-8:00 am (Eastern Standard Time – apologies to North Americans) or: 8pm (Sydney, Australia), 11am (UK), 12 noon (Germany, France, Italy).
This event is co-organized with two Australian Research Council funded projects on “History, Heritage and Environmental Change in a Deindustrialised Landscape” (based at Macquarie University) and “Continuity and Change in the Australian Industrial Landscape” (based at the University of Wollongong).
Register here. This event will be held on Zoom. The event will be taking place in English, with presentations in French translated to English via closed captions. If you have any additional access needs please contact the organizer.

The recording for this event can also be viewed here.
Chairperson: Steven High, Concordia University.

Tanya Evans, Macquarie University.
Lucy Taksa, Macquarie University.
Chris Gibson, University of Wollongong
Chantel Carr, University of Wollongong
Seamus O’Hanlon, Monash University.
Jesse Adams Stein, University of Technology Sydney.
Eric Eklund, Federation University.

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Cover Image: View of the petrochemical plants from the port area, Porto Marghera, 2016. Photo by Gilda Zazzara.
