Introduction

Whilst living in the Black Country, an area of industrial heritage and smoke that so granted the region its name, the author had come to think of post-industrial as being defined by networks of canals, abandoned warehouses and red-brick glass cones. Small villages have run together into an endless urban sprawl of small commercial centres and many industrial estates, but each are known for their own historical trade. The legacy of industrial places and practices lives on within geographies of post-industrial heritage. The associated infrastructure dominates the landscape of many regions around the world, whether still functioning, memorialized, adapted to other uses, or abandoned. Geographers also engage with the broader social theory surrounding these transitions, reflecting on the conceptualization of post-modern society.