Deindustrialisation and the Moral Economy in Scotland since 1955

by Jim Phillips, Valerie Wright, Jim Tomlinson

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.

296 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2021

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 (2019) and with Valerie Wright and Jim Tomlinson Deindustrialisation and the Moral Economy since 1955 (2021).