ABSTRACT
Many hard feelings and hardships remain in Barnsley as remnants of the brutal yearlong miners strike from 198485. And the role of the Tory government, in the guise of Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher, in killing the only industry in town. Huge sums of federal and European Union money were also made available to deal with the inevitable by-products of de-industrialization poverty, declining health and overtaxed social services. Some residents focused solely on the halo, seeing it as nothing more than a publicity gimmick. The topic of job creation led some to suggest that Barnsley try to build upon its tradition of mining and geology by developing high-tech rock and gem cutting industries. And by providing training to do machine-aided design and civil engineering. Barnsley's quest to build a creative economy atop vacant mine shafts exposes the fragility and, in some respects, the incompleteness of its alternative forward-looking vision.
