Deindustrialisation and the Moral Economy in Scotland since 1955

by Jim Phillips, Valerie Wright, Jim Tomlinson

Overview

Deindustrialisation is the central feature of Scotland’s economic, social and political history since the 1950s, when employment levels peaked in the established sectors of coal, shipbuilding, metals and textiles, along with the railways and docks. This book moves analysis beyond outmoded tropes of economic decline and industrial catastrophe, and instead examines the political economy of deindustrialisation with a sharp eye on cultural and social dimensions that were not uniformly negative, as often assumed.

Viewing the long-term process of deindustrialisation through a moral economy framework, the book carefully reconstructs the impact of economic change on social class, gender relations and political allegiances, including a reawakened sense of Scottish national identity. In doing so, it reveals deindustrialisation as a more complex process than the customary body count of closures and job losses suggests, and demonstrates that socioeconomic change did not just happen, but was influenced by political agency.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781474479240
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	08/31/2021
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x (d)

About the Author

Jim Phillips is Professor in Economic & Social History at the University of Glasgow, and author of Scottish Coal Miners in the Twentieth Century (Edinburgh UniversityPress, 2019) and with Valerie Wright and Jim Tomlinson Deindustrialisation and the Moral Economy since 1955 (Edinburgh UniversityPress, 2021).

Valerie Wright is Research Associate in History the University of Glasgow, and co-author of High-Rise Homes, Estates and Communities in the Post-War Period (Routledge: London, 2020).

Jim Tomlinson is Professor in Economic & Social History at the University of Glasgow, and author of Managing the Economy, Managing the People. Narratives of British Economic Life from Beveridge to Brexit (Oxford UniversityPress, 2017).

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures; Acknowledgements; List of Abbreviations; Introduction; Part One: Understanding Deindustrialisation; 1. Deindustrialisation as Historical and Global Phenomenon; 2. The Moral Economies of Deindustrialisation; 3. Scotland and the Age of Deindustrialisation; Part Two: The Politics of Deindustrialisation; 4 Fairfields, Govan: Shipbuilding and the Scottish Nation; 5 Linwood, Renfrewshire: Car Manufacturing and Scotland’s Political Divergence; 6 Timex, Dundee: Watches, Electronics and the Moral Economy; Part Three: Legacy and Evaluation; 7 Deindustrialisation since the 1990s; Conclusion; Bibliography.