| dc.description.abstract | This thesis argues that the outcome of the miners’ strike of 1984-5 was not individualism’s triumph over the collective sense of community in traditional mining communities. By analysing individual testimonies from local citizens of a specific mining community called Horden, I suggest that individualism was an important element for miners in their year long dispute with the National Coal Board and the Thatcher Government. Drawing primarily on the academic concept of ‘popular individualism’, this thesis rejects the fact that mining communities such as Horden lacked individualism, and furthermore argues that the strong ‘sense of community’ played an important part in preserving the individual aspirations to the local citizens. Subsequently, the loss that mining communities suffered in the strike, and the deindustrialization that followed, led to a dismantling of these communities which had a devastating effect on both their individualism and community spirit.
The testimonies illustrate attitudes towards ‘popular individualism’ in the immediate wake of the strike, before closure of the colliery, and how these attitudes had changed years after closure. Ultimately, it contextualizes the ideological differences between Thatcherism and the mining communities, and illustrates how Thatcherism’s attributed individualism failed to apply to the people of Horden. | |
