ABSTRACT
Deindustrialization first emerged as an explanatory framework in the 1970s and 1980s. Those who initially took up the idea sought to explain why so many mills and factories were closing in North America and Western Europe. Since then, an interdisciplinary field of deindustrialization studies has emerged, expanding its reach beyond plant closings and the body counts of jobs lost, to its wider cultural meaning, memory, and political significance. Brexit, the election of Donald Trump as US President, and the rise of right-wing populism in deindustrialized areas has created a new sense of urgency in this area of research. This chapter surveys the field in order to ascertain what we now know about how governments, trade unions, and communities have responded to the erosion or collapse of the industrial base across what was once called the industrialized world.
