ABSTRACT
This study examines the legacies of deindustrialisation in Asturias, Spain, focusing on the role of cultural creation in shaping working-class memory. Once a major industrial hub, Asturias underwent profound economic restructuring, particularly in its coal and steel industries, leading to economic decline, social upheaval, and demographic shifts. The research explores how trade unions, state policies, and social movements influenced the dismantling process, shaping the region’s post-industrial transformation. Through an analysis of artistic expressions – literature, music, visual arts, and film – the study highlights how Asturian artists serve as mediators of industrial decline, preserving working-class identity and contesting mainstream narratives. Using concepts like “moral economy” and “structure of feeling”, the research reveals how cultural production reflects both nostalgia and critical engagement with deindustrialisation’s consequences. The study draws on extensive interviews with artists, who navigate themes of resistance, loss, and place attachment, using art as a tool for social commentary and identity preservation. Ultimately, Asturias’ cultural memory continues to shape its present, offering a lens through which industrial decline is reinterpreted. The persistence of industrial heritage in artistic discourse underscores the region’s struggle for economic revitalisation and the enduring influence of its working-class past.
