The 1984/85 Miners' Strike: Re-claiming Cultural Heritage.

The Public History Discussion Group 2011-12 - formerly known as the Ruskin Public History Discussion Group.

Michael Bailey (University of Essex) & Simon Popple (University of Leeds)

 

Shortly after the 1984/85 miners' strike had come to an end, the socialist historian Raphael Samuel noted that the meaning of the strike would be determined not 'by the terms of settlement ... or even by the events of the past year but by the way in which it is assimilated in popular memory, by ... retrospective understanding both in the pit villages themselves and in the country at large'. The significance of Samuel's remark is that, though the 1984/85 strike was a decisive defeat for mining communities, it is imperative that such communities are encouraged to participate in the creation of new representations and social rituals that seek to democratise the mediation of the strike. Not only because such texts hold out the promise of raising public awareness of what actually happened twenty-five years ago but because they also provide affirmation for those miners and families most affected by the strike-action and the subsequent closure of pits. This presentation discusses the two AHRC/BBC funded projects undertaken on this between autumn 2007 and summer 2009 by a small team from the Institute of Communications Studies, University of Leeds.

Doors open at 10:30am for a prompt start at 11am

Please bring your own coffee – lots of places nearby.

Date: 4 February, 12

Time: 10:30am - 1pm

Venue:

Bishopsgate Institute,
230 Bishopsgate,
London,
EC2M 4QH.
Courtyard room – lift accessible 

http://www.bishopsgate.org.uk/
This is a few minutes walk from Liverpool Street station (in the direction of Shoreditch and Spitalfields market) and on the corner with Brushfield Street.

Contact:

Dr Hilda Kean, convenor of the group: hkean@ruskin.ac.uk