Education, Work and Social Change in Britain's Former Coalfield Communities: The Ghost of Coal

by Robin Simmons (Editor), Kat Simpson (Editor)

Overview

This edited book presents a range of chapters written by new and established authors, drawing on a range of different perspectives and traditions to critically analyse education, work and social change in the former coalfields. Historically, coal was one of Britain’s major industries, employing over a million men at its peak. But mining was more than an occupation - it was a way of life for those living and working in coalfield communities. Work, leisure, family relations and other dimensions of social life were centred upon the coal industry and its related institutions such as trade unions, working-men’s clubs and welfare institutes. These communities have, however, undergone significant social and economic change over time, not least in terms of the pain and suffering associated with the Great Strike of 1984–85, the successive waves of pit closures which took place thereafter and the eventual demise of the coal industry. The book will be of interest to academics drawing on sociology, social policy, history, geography and other subject disciplines.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783031107924
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan
Publication date:	10/17/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Robin Simmons is Professor of Education at the University of Huddersfield, UK. His research interests lie in the sociology of education, education policy, and the history of education. Robin has led research funded by leading bodies including the Raymond Williams Foundation, Gatsby Charitable Foundation, and the Leverhulme Trust. He has written extensively on social class, particularly in relation to young people’s experiences of participation and non-participation in education, employment, and work-based learning. Robin is co-editor of Education and Working-Class Youth: Reshaping the Politics of Inclusion published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2018.

Kat Simpson is Senior Lecturer in Education and Community Studies at the University of Huddersfield, UK. Her research interests lie in education and social class, especially pupils’ and teachers’ experiences of schooling in former coalmining communities. She has written extensively on differentaspects of deindustrialisation and social haunting. Methodologically, Kat is interested in Marxist ethnography and critical policy analysis. Her book Social Haunting, Education and the Working Class: Reimagining Schooling in a Former Mining Community was published in 2021.

Table of Contents

Introduction In the Shadow of Coal; Robin Simmons and Katherine Simpson.- Chapter 1 Contextualising the Coalfields: Mapping the Socio-Economic and Cultural Loss of the Coal Industry; Tim Strangleman.- Chapter 2 A Conflictual Legacy: Being a Coal Miner’s Daughter.- Chapter 3 Education, Ghosts and Deindustrialisation: Attuning to Legacies of Resistance and Collectivity in the Hidden Curriculum.- Chapter 4 Growing up in the interregnum: accounts from the South Yorkshire coalfield.- Chapter 5 Working Down the Pit: Historical and Cultural Perspectives on Coal Mining in Britain and the Implications for Contemporary Society and Politics.- Chapter 6 Are we expecting too much? Aspirations and Expectations of Girls Living in an Ex-Mining Community.- Chapter 7 School Legacies in the Former Coalfields: Education, Deindustrialisation and Collective Remembering.- Chapter 8 “A brewing, a world stirring”: A ‘Ghost Lab’ Approach to the Social Haunting of the UK Coalfields; Geoff Bright.-9 Conclusion Reimagining Education and Work in the Former Coalfields.