Introduction: Education, Work and Social Change in Britain’s Former Coalfield Communities

The introduction locates the origins of the book in the editors’ personal histories, growing up in former coalfield communities, the social and cultural changes they have witnessed, and some of the conundrums now facing such locales—especially in relation to education and work. It provides an intellectual framework for the text; it discusses the perspectives which underpin the book and the interdisciplinary approach employed. This provides a range of insights and understandings, particularly in terms of the relationship between the current ‘condition’ of the former coalfields and their industrial past—which continues to be ‘haunted’ by a social, political and cultural matrix which has always been both enabling and constraining for those living and working in former coalfield communities. It positions the book in the literature—both in terms of coalmining communities and on the relationship between education and social class. The chapter finishes with an overview of the contents of the book. It highlights the arguments made, particularly in relation to the nature and purpose of education in the former coalfields, especially in relation to social class but also in terms of gender and other forms of ‘difference’.