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Fighting for the soul of coal: Colliery closures and the moral economy of nationalization in Britain, 1947–1994
Perchard, Andrew Gildart, Keith Millar, Grace
Perchard, Andrew
Gildart, Keith
Millar, Grace
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2024-04-10
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Abstract
In this article, we explore the impact of colliery closure programs across the nationalized British coal industry. We chart the regional disparities in these and the mobilization of community opposition to national protests, leading to the national miners’ strikes of 1972, 1974, and 1984–5. This article demonstrates how closures have changed the industrial politics of mining unions for miners, junior officials, and managers and have increasingly alienated NCB officials and mining communities. We demonstrate how this undermined the ideals of nationalization. This is examined through moral economic frameworks and within the context of changes to the UK’s energy mix, with implications for contemporary deliberations on public ownership, energy transitions, and regional development.
Citation
Perchard, A., Gildart, K., Curtis, B. and Millar, G. (2024) Fighting for the soul of coal: Colliery closures and the moral economy of nationalization in Britain, 1947–1994. Enterprise & Society, pp. 1-34 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/eso.2024.6
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Journal article
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en
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© 2024 The Authors. Published by Cambridge University Press. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1017/eso.2024.6
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1467-2227
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1467-2235
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The authors would like to thank the Arts and Humanities Research Council for their funding of the project, ‘On Behalf of the People: Work, Community and Class in the British Coal Industry, 1947–1994’ (AH/P007244/1) on which this article is based.