LANDSCAPES AND LEGACIES OF INDUSTRIAL RUINATION by ALICE ANASTASIA MAH A ...

305 Pages·2014·22.99 MB·English

LANDSCAPES AND LEGACIES OF INDUSTRIAL RUINATION
by
ALICE ANASTASIA MAH
A thesis submitted to the
London School of Economics and Political Science
for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
in
SOCIOLOGY
September 2008
London School of Economics and Political Science
Houghton Street
London WC2A 2AE
UMI Number: U615678
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Declaration
I certify that all material presented in this thesis is my own work and that no portion of
the work referred to in the thesis has been submitted in support of an application for
another degree or qualification of this or any other university.
.....
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Acknowledgements
I wish to extend special thanks to my supervisor Fran Tonkiss for her outstanding
intellectual and moral support. Many thanks as well to all of the people who I
interviewed in Newcastle, Ivanovo and Niagara Falls. The NYLON (New York-
London) Research Network, the Cities Programme postgraduate seminar, and the ‘Old
Industrial Regions’ Working Group of the Regional Studies Association provided
critical feedback on drafts of thesis chapters. I would also like to thank Richard Sennett
and Ash Amin for providing me with invaluable suggestions for revising the final draft.
Special thanks to the following individuals for their academic guidance: Andy Pratt,
Wally Clement and Rianne Mahon. Finally, I would like to thank Colin Stephen and
Eric and Kathy Mah for their tremendous patience and support.
This research was supported by generous grants from the Social Sciences and
Humanities Research Council of Canada, the UK Universities Overseas Research
Students Award Scheme, the London School of Economics Research Studentship
Scheme, the Dr. Ingeborg Paulus Scholarship, and the University of London Central
Research Fund.
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Thesis Abstract
This doctoral thesis critically examines the landscapes and legacies of industrial ruination
via three paradigmatic case studies in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, United Kingdom; Ivanovo,
Russia; and the twin-city-region of Niagara Falls, USA/Canada. These conurbations
represent old industrial areas in different national and political contexts which have
experienced significant deindustrialisation in the latter half of the twentieth century.
Through the case studies, this research explores the social and economic geography of
industrial decline, drawing connections to wider processes and to the specifics of local
contexts. The research is based on a multiple-site case study methodology which involves
semi-structured interviews with a range of local people; site and ethnographic
observations; statistical data and socioeconomic indicators; and documentary and
photographic materials. The aims of this research are firstly to examine how sites of
industrial ruination are readable as part of a landscape of capital, and secondly to explore
how local people relate to forms and processes of industrial ruination in their everyday
lives. Key findings from this research are: 1) old industrial centres have diverse
challenges and strengths, thus no single model of economic growth, such as arts-and-
housing-led regeneration, can form the basis for urban redevelopment; 2) many people
remain strongly attached to their communities in areas of industrial decline, despite job
losses, socioeconomic deprivation, and contamination; and 3) people who live in derelict
industrial landscapes imagine past and present industrial places in contradictory ways,
reflecting divisions across generations, class, gender and ethnicity. The thesis suggests
that processes of deindustrialisation or the physical topography of a ruin are not simply
matters of historic record, but they represent legacies of industrial ruination: enduring
and complex contemporary realities for people occupying the in-between spaces of post­
industrial change.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF FIGURES 7
LIST OF TABLES 9
LIST OF INTERVIEWEES, NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE 10
LIST OF INTERVIEWEES, IVANOVO, RUSSIA 11
LIST OF INTERVIEWEES, NIAGARA FALLS, ONTARIO (ON) AND NIAGARA FALLS, NEW
YORK (NY) 12
1 INTRODUCTION 13
l. l Core Themes: Landscapes and Landscapes of Industrial Ruination 14
1.2 Background to the Case Studies: Three City-regions 20
1.3 Key Findings 34
l .4 Structure of the Thesis 38
2 INDUSTRIAL RUINATION AS LIVED PROCESS:
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND LITERATURE REVIEW 40
2.1 Literature Review 41
2.2 Industrial Ruination as Lived Process 59
3 METHODOLOGY: CASE STUDIES AND FIELDWORK 63
3.1 Case Study Method 63
3.2 The Logic of Comparison 65
3.3 Time, Space and Qualitative Analysis 70
3.4 Methodological Preparation and Lessons in the Field: An Ethnographic Shift
72
3.5 Challenges in Fieldwork 76
3.6 Methodological Limitations 81
3.7 Analytical Structure of the Empirical Material 81
4 WALKER RIVERSIDE, NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE: ON THE POST-INDUSTRIAL
PRECIPICE 83
4. l Placing Walker Riverside 84
4.2 Scale and Scope of Ruination 88
4.3 Analysis of Sites 90
4.4 Landscapes of Ruination, Landscapes of Community 101
5 WALKER, NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE: IMMINENT REGENERATION 114
5. l Living Memory 116
5.2 The Legacies of ‘Industrial Atmosphere’ 127
5.3 Local Politics of Post-industrial Change: Imminent Regeneration 135
6 IVANOVO, RUSSIA: RUPTURE AND PARTIAL REVERSAL 151
6.1 Setting the Context 152
6.2 Scale and Scope of Ruination 157
6.3 Analysis of Sites 165
6.4 Recent Ruptures: Ruination and the Cityscape 178
7 IVANOVO, RUSSIA: ENDURING SOVIET AND TEXTILE IDENTITIES 183
7. l The Tenacity of Soviet and Textile Identities 185
7.2 In and Amongst the Ruins: Towards a Critique of Aesthetic Approaches 195
7.3 Politics: Capital and Community 201
8 NIAGARA FALLS, ONTARIO AND NIAGARA FALLS, NEW YORK: THE TOXIC TOURS
207
8.1 Background to Old Industrial Sites in Niagara Falls 209
8.2 Scale and Scope of Ruination 214
8.3 Analysis of Sites 215
8.4 Relationships to Adjacent Communities 225
9 NIAGARA FALLS, ONTARIO AND NIAGARA FALLS, NEW YORK: TOXIC LEGACIES 237
9.1 Living Memory and Nostalgia: Ambivalence and Tensions 237
9.2 Questions of Health Impacts 256
9.3 Politics of Community and Development 265
10 CONCLUSION 274
10.1 Landscapes and Legacies as Palimpsest 274
10.2 Devastation, Yes, But Also Home 278
10.3 Divided Imaginings of Past and Present Place 282
10.4 Conceptual and Distinctive Themes and Implications for Theory 284
10.5 Policy Implications 287
10.6 Questions for Further Research 290
REFERENCES 292
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure l Map of Tyne and Wear, 2007. Source: www.maps-of-britain.co.uk'.............................22
Figure 2 Map of the Golden Ring, including Ivanovo, 2001. Source: www.waytorussia.net
............................................................................................................................................................................................27
Figure 3 Map of Niagara Falls, 2007. Source: www.world-guides.com........................................31
Figure 4 Angel of the North, Gateshead, June 2005....................................................................................83
Figure 5 Map of Newcastle Municipality by Ward, 2006. Source: Newcastle City Council.
86
Figure 6 Walker Riverside Regeneration Boundary, 2002. Source: Newcastle City
Council.........................................................................................................................................................................87
Figure 7 Swan Hunter’s Shipyard, June 2005.....................................................................................................93
Figure 8 A& P Tyne Abandoned Shipyard, Walker Riverside, September 2005...............................94
Figure 9 Former Neptune Yard, Walker Riverside, September 2005....................................................96
Figure 10 Bench, Walker Riverside, June 2005.................................................................................................97
Figure 11 Walker Riverside Regeneration Boundary, 2005. Source: Newcastle City
Council.........................................................................................................................................................................98
Figure 12 Former Parsons Factory, March 2006........................................................................................ 100
Figure 13 Road Between Walker Community and Riverside, June 2005....................................... 104
Figure 14 ‘Wor Hoose’, Community House, Hexham Ave., Walker, March 2006..................... 109
Figure 15 View of Vacant Land From Taxicab, Walker, March 2006................................................ill
Figure 16 Cambrian Show Homes, Walker, March 2006......................................................................... 112
Figure 17 ‘Heart of Walker’ Icon, Walker Riverside Regeneration Website, 2007................ 114
Figure 18 Church Walk Shopping Area, Walker, December 2005..................................................... 133
Figure 19 The Walker Riverside Area, Neighbourhoods, Newcastle City Council, 2003. 138
Figure 20 Proposals Map for Walker Riverside, 2003. Source: Newcastle City Council. 139
Figure 21 Lenin and Smokestack, Ivanovo City Centre, September 2006..................................... 151
Figure 22 Map of Ivanovo Region, 2006. Source: www.europe-tech.com...................................154
Figure 23 Typical Wooden House, Ivanovo, September 2006.............................................................. 155
Figure 24 Tovarshetva Factory, Ivanovo City Centre, September 2006..................................... 159
Figure 25 Ivanovskiy Kambolniy Kombinat, September 2006................................................................ 160
Figure 26 Map of Ivanovo with Marked Textile Factories and Sites, 2008. Source: Google
Maps, 2008................................................................................................................................................................. 161
Figure 27 Bolshaya Ivanovskaya Manufactura (Big Ivanovo Factory), City Centre, Sept
2006 165
Figure 28 Novaya Ivanovskaya Manufactura (New Ivanovo Factory), Entrance, Sept 2006.
..........................................................................................................................................................................................167
Figure 29 Piaque to Zhidelyev, Novaya Ivanovskaya Manufactura (NIM)...............................167
Figure 30 Textile Profi, 2006. Source: Ivanovskaya Oblast’(Yefimov, etal.)...............................170
Figure 31 Zinoviev Factory, September 2006................................................................................................. 171
Figure 32 Melangheviy Kombinat (Industrial Complex), September 2006.................................. 172
Figure 33 Samoilova Kombinat, Entrance, September 2006................................................................. 174
Figure 34 Samoilova Kombinat, September 2006.......................................................................................... 174
Figure 35 ‘Silver City5 Shopping Mall, former 8™ March Textile Factory, September 2006
176
Figure 36 Derelict Building, Ivanovo City Centre, September 2006............................................. 179
Figure 37 Friedrich Engels Boulevard, Ivanovo, September 2006................................................... 180
Figure 38 ‘Ivanovo: Russian Manchester’, 2006. Source: Ivanovskaya Oblast’(Yefimov, et
AL.)..................................................................................................................................................................................183
Figure 39 Textile Grad, Factory Conversion, Ivanovo City Centre, September 2006........ 193
Figure 40 Wall art, Tovarshetva factory, Ivanovo City Centre, September 2006.................200
Figure 41 ‘Nashi’ Student Demonstration, Prospect Lenina, Ivanovo, 22 Sept 2006............205
Figure 42 Love Canal Site, Niagara Falls, New York, April 2007.........................................................208
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Figure 43 Map of Former Cyanamid Fourth Avenue Site, Niagara Falls, 2008. Sources:
Google Maps............................................................................................................................................................217
Figure 44 Former Cyanamid Site, March 2007.....................................................................................219
Figure 45 Former Cyanamid Community Centre and YMCA, March 2007................................219
Figure 46 Former Union Carbide Factory, Highland, Niagara Falls, March 2007...............220
Figure 47 Highland Avenue Brownfield, March 2007.....................................................................221
Figure 48 Map of Highland Avenue Brownfields, 2008. Source: Google Maps........................221
Figure 49 Highland Avenue Brownfield Project Site, 1999. Source: City of Niagara Falls
,NY..............................................................................................................................................................223
Figure 50 Highland Area Redevelopment Area, 1998. Source: City of Niagara Falls ,NY. 223
Figure 51 Glenview-Silvertown, Niagara Falls, Ontario, April 2007........................................227
Figure 52 Queen St., Downtown Niagara Falls, Ontario, March 2007....................................228
Figure 53 Highland Avenue Neighbourhood: Smokestack Views, March 2007.....................230
Figure 54 Highland Avenue Overgrown Brownfield, April 2007...............................................232
Figure 55 Highland Area Redevelopment Plan, 1999. Source: City of Niagara Falls, NY. 269
Figure 56 Local 91 Trade Union Protest Rat, Construction Site, Highland, NF, 13 Apr
2007............................................................................................................................................................271
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