The role of coal-mining towns in social theory: past, present and future

Coal mining has ceased in Britain to all intents and purposes. For centuries, it was a source of employment and even economic security for thousands of men, and the women who lived with them. Miners clung on to life in dangerous occupations – second only to fishing in accident and mortality rates – but strong trade unionism and collectivism mean that for some periods they were regarded as relatively well-off within the working class, if one used internal comparisons. And whilst this group may have all but disappeared from the United Kingdom and most parts of Western Europe, today in other regions of the world, coal mining continues to expand. This article discusses a brief comparison of two pit villages in the 1950s when arguably coal mining in Britain was at its height, both in terms of tons produced and recorded manpower at work. It then turns to look to coal-mining villages in China today as sources of sociological insight for our collective futures.