Translated by Kate Tranter<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the 1970s, the economic and social foundations of Western Europe underwent an unprecedented transformation. Old industries like coal and steel disappeared, millions of people lost their jobs and formerly flourishing towns and cities went into decline. Traditional political agendas gave way to new social problems and concerns. What happened to industrial citizens \u2013 their workplaces, their careers and their homes? How did social rights and political participation of workers change when markets became global, management lean and financial capital dominant? How did companies change and how were personal skills and work tasks reinvented under the impact of new technologies? How did workers \u2013 men and women \u2013 live through these decades of uncertainty and upheaval? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lutz Raphael reconstructs the highly variegated story of deindustrialization in Western Europe with a particular focus on Britain, France and West Germany. Extending over three decades, this transformation was accompanied by significant rises in productivity and consumerism, but it also came at a heavy cost, ushering in many low-income jobs, growing inequality and a crisis of democratic representation. Its legacy is everywhere around us today \u2013 it is the transformation that has shaped our world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Table of Contents<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Acknowledgements Reviews<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n “This is an outstanding study of a major topical theme: the changes that have taken place in the structure, organization and orientation of the working class during the process of deindustrialization that has been underway since the 1960s. No one has analysed this transformation with this degree of thoroughness before, and, as Raphael shows, we are still living with its consequences. This is certainly an important book, and it has no rivals at the level of serious scholarship.” “This is comparative social history of deindustrialization in Western Europe at its best. Lutz Raphael has written an entirely convincing book that analyses transformations in the world of work, changes in the understanding of social classes and the impact of labour conflicts. Anyone wanting to know about changing social structures, life-course narratives of workers, unemployment, factory life, working-class neighbourhoods and de-skilling as well as re-skilling should read this book.” “ About the Author<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Lutz Raphael<\/strong> is Professor of Contemporary History at Trier University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n November 2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n 404 pages<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Introduction
SECTION I. A BIRD’S EYE VIEW
Three National Labour Regimes in Transition
1. Industrial labour in Western Europe after the economic boom from the perspective of the political economy
2. Farewell to class struggle and fixed social structures
3. Political history from below: labour conflict and new social movements
4. Industrial citizens and wage earners: labour relations, social benefits and wages
5. Skilled work, production knowledge and educational capital: conflicts of interpretation and readjustments.
SECTION II.\u00a0 CLOSE-UPS
Fields of experience and horizons of expectation in times of upheaval
6. Life courses, work and unemployment in times of upheaval
7. Transformations in company regimes
8. Industrial districts, social spaces, \u2018problem neighbourhoods\u2019 and owner-occupier areas: social spaces and deindustrialization
Conclusion: The history of deindustrialization as a history of contemporary problems.
List of Illustrations
Sources and literature
Notes
Index<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u2014Colin Crouch, University of Warwick<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014Stefan Berger, Ruhr-Universit\u00e4t Bochum<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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