The Politics of Industrial Heritage

The Politics of Industrial Heritage Initiative examines the unfolding relationship between industrial heritage sites and the working-class areas that often adjoin them, with the goal of understanding how the socio-economic and political impact of recognizing the industrial past affects the present. The transnational flow of industrial heritage ideas will also be considered. Can industrial heritage support those ‘left behind’ in deindustrialized areas where nothing (or very little) has filled the economic or cultural vacuum? How has the transnational flow of industrial heritage ideas influenced site interpretation, culture-led redevelopment schemes, and official heritage discourse in Western Europe and North America?