ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the characteristics of twenty-three small-scale entrepreneurs who were identified as those who had established and/or developed their business with the assistance of a British Coal Enterprise loan in the central South Wales coalfield up until 1986. It suggests that the form and pattern of growth of self-employment and small business are spread highly unevenly across the regional and local economies of Britain. The chapter also suggests that the changes in the nature and organization of the coalfield labour markets during the intervening period have exacerbated such problems. Although most of these constituted a prime target group for the state's re-industrialization efforts, none of them had made use of the British Coal Enterprise scheme. The chapter argues that there is a need to move beyond the sociological 'conventional wisdom' of the coal-mining community in order to understand the impacts of the state's current attempts to re-industrialize the coalfields through the promotion of an enterprise economy.
