Under the broad umbrella of the Landscape Legacies of Coal Initiative, Ian McIntosh (Sociology) and Catherine Mills (History) are working on a small research project exploring the concept of ‘social haunting’ (Bell, 1997) as applied to the process of de-industrialisation. The idea that a past unresolved social trauma, such as the closure of a factory or mine, has a ‘half-life’ (Strangleman, 2017) that can linger on and inform the present day.
We are proposing to focus on Fallin for a variety of reasons, it is local to the University, it owes its origins to coal, a significant amount of research on the history of the village has already been undertaken for the original ‘coal app’ walking route and the closure of the pit was sudden and unexpected. This was despite significant investment by the NCB immediately before and after the 84/85 strike.
We are aiming to capture how the village, past, present and future is perceived and understood against the backdrop of its history. If you live in (or previously lived in) Fallin or worked at the pit we would be interested in your views.
If you would like to take part in the project, the link below will take you to a short questionnaire that will take approximately 15 mins to complete.
This project has been approved by the University of Stirling General University Ethics Panel. The results of the research once analysed and written up, will be made available here.