Mediating the Decline of Industrial Cities: Knowledge Production, Heritage-Making and Urban Transformation in Postwar Europe(Routledge Advances in Urban History)

This volume reflects the latest historiographical discussion about the decline, transformation, heritagization and re-invention of industrial cities in Europe during the late 20th century. It argues that the notion of “mediation” as it has been used in the history of technology helps to shed new light on the processes of understanding changes of industrial cities before, during and after the economic crisis of the 1970s and 1980s. The contributors investigate how different actor groups, such as scientists, union members, journalists, politicians, artists, and historians, mediated the understanding of decline, the anticipated future, and the heritage of industrial cities. The authors look at a wide range of European cities during different phases of decline and transformation. The book is aimed at scholars of urban history and industrial history, as well as contemporary European history, the history of technology, and deindustrialization studies. The contributions also resonate with discussion in neighboring fields such as urban studies, media studies, cultural studies, sociology and digital history.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Mediating the Transformation and Decline of Industrial Cities Part 1: Mediating the Understanding of Industrial Decline 1. “It’ll all be over with this place in two years”: Deindustrialisation and the Future of Work and Place on Late-1960s Tyneside 2. Mediating Knowledge in a European (Semi-)Periphery: Youth, Labour and Urban Research in Romania in the 1960s and 1970s 3. Being Unemployed: Deindustrialisation as an Issue in the Periodicals Published by Initiatives for the Unemployed in the Ruhr during the 1980s 4. Photography Mediating Change: The Role of Images During the Decline of Luxembourg’s Industrial South 5. Interpreting, Mediating and Coping with Deindustrialisation: Churches as Urban Actors in Manchester from the Late 1960s to the 1980s Part 2: Mediating Urban Transformations 6. “We Swallow the Dirt”: Popular and Governmental Perceptions of Metallurgical Air Pollution in Luxembourg During the Trente Glorieuses 7. How the Working Class in the Longwy Region Dealt with the Restructuring of the Steel Industry 8. Memory, Heritage and the Post-Steel City: Mediating the Transformation of Sheffield Since 1990 9. The Classic Slum?: Heritage Discourses, Ideologies of Transition and the Remaking of Post-Industrial Salford (1985–2021) Part 3: Mediating Industrial-Heritage 10. Working-Class Memories and Legacies of Deindustrialisation through Cultural Creation in Asturias, Spain 11. The Origins of Memory Construction through Film in the Context of Deindustrialisation in French Lorraine 12. Digital unter Tage – (Data) Mining Life Stories and Social Culture in the Ruhr Area

About the Author :
Christoph Brüll is Assistant Professor for Contemporary History at the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C2DH). His research interests include the history of cross-border cooperation in Western Europe. He is the co-editor of Föderalisierung, Strukturwandel, Erwartungshorizonte [Federalisation, Structural Change, Expectations] (2023). Sebastian Haumann is Professor for Economic, Social and Environmental History at Paris Lodron University Salzburg. His research interests include the history of raw materials and new methods in the field of Citizen Science. He is the co-editor of Concepts of Urban-Environmental History (2020). Stefan Krebs is Assistant Professor for Contemporary History at the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C2DH). His research interests include the industrial history of Luxembourg and the history of repair and maintenance. He is the co-editor of The Persistence of Technology (2021) and Deindustrialisierung: Zum sozio-ökonomischen Wandel westeuropäischer Industriegesellschaften seit den 1970er Jahren [Deindustrialization: The Socio-economic Transformation of Western European Industrial Societies Since the 1970s] (forthcoming). Jens van de Maele is a postdoctoral member of the research unit Modernity and Society 1800-2000 at KU Leuven. His research interests include architectural history (with a focus on office buildings) and urban environmental history. He is the author of Architectures of Bureaucracy (2025) and editor of Behind Office Doors (2026).

Review :
Praise for the Third Edition '... Burke’s is still an erudite and stimulating guide to pre-industrial European culture after thirty years of lively work in the field.’ Times Literary Supplement ’... probably even more important now than it was in 1978.’ Times Higher Education 'The study of popular culture has come a long way since the first publication of Burke’s work. However, it is still the only work offering a European-wide view. This updated, third edition remains a valuable reference point for those interested in early modern European societies.' Historein 'Burke’s highly readable book remains an excellent introduction to early modern European history.' Sport in History