In this episode of the DePOT Podcast, host Adna Camdzic speaks with cultural geographer and social theorist Leila Dawney about her in-depth research in Visaginas, Lithuania — a town built around the now-closed Ignalina nuclear power plant. Through long-term collaboration with photographers Laurie Griffiths and Jonty Tacon, Dawney explores what it means for a community to live through the slow, complex process of nuclear deindustrialization.

Far from the usual narratives of decline and abandonment, this conversation highlights how care, memory, and everyday practices sustain community life after closure. Dawney reflects on the emotional and social attachments people maintain to the place, the transformation of labor from generation to generation, and how residents navigate the enduring legacies of Soviet industrial planning and post-Soviet marginalization.

The episode offers a nuanced look at how people endure — and even reimagine — life in a decommissioned town, challenging assumptions about what happens after industrial futures fade.

We have a special episode today from DePOT affiliates at the University of Luxembourg examining the steel crisis in Luxembourg in the 1970s and the deindustrialization of East Germany's steel sector after 1990. Stefan Krebs, the head of the project Confronting Decline (CONDE) is joined by two PhD students, Zoé Konsbruck and Nicolas Arendt to discuss their research into the impacts industrial closure had on steel towns, with a particular emphasis on transnational comparisons.

In this episode, Andy Clark of Newcastle University discusses his research on aging under deindustrialization in Britain. Utilizing an existing birth cohort study and an oral history approach, Andy explores questions of health impacts, social gerontology, and economic change. Part way through his oral interview process, Andy shares his preliminary findings, some of which challenge assumptions about getting older in the aftermath of closure.

Cet épisode présente l'interview par Fred Burrill de Pascal Raggi, maître de conférences Habilité à Diriger des Recherches (HDR) à l’Université de Lorraine, chercheur au Centre de Recherche Universitaire Lorrain d’Histoire et directeur scientifique du Musée de l’Histoire du Fer. Au menu: le rôle de l'État dans la désindustrialisation française, les techniques de travail en évolution, la violence syndicale, et l'importance des échanges transnationaux.

This year the annual DePOT conference was held in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada from June 21-24 2023. Two of the organizers, Lachlan MacKinnon and Sophia Richter, join us to talk about the themes of the conference and discuss the deindustrialization of Cape Breton Island. Regional underdevelopment, the role of the state, settler colonialism, and memories of working class radicalism shaped the Cape Breton experience. The conference itself built on connections made last year in the Ruhr, and much of the showcased research was collaborative and transnational.

This year's program can be found here: https://deindustrialization.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/DePOT-2023-Annual-Meetings-Info-Packet-and-Preliminary-Program_Updated-June-7_PRINTER-COPY.pdf

You can find out more about the DéPOT project at www.deindustrialization.org

Fred Burrill joins host Amanda Marie Whitt to discuss his recently-submitted PhD dissertation, and his work engaging with tenant rights and gentrification through the lens of deindustrialization. This episode was recorded live at Concordia's 4th Space, and a video recording of Amanda and Fred's conversation can be viewed here.

Find out more about the 4th Space on their website or follow them on twitter @cu4thspace. Thank you to Kari and the rest of the 4th Space team for hosting us.

Follow Deindustrialization and the Politics Of Our Time on twitter @deindustrialpol or on our website deindustrialization.org."

Music: "Never Give Up" by Ketsa. Used under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0; https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/summer-with-sound/never-give-up.

Sinead Burns joins Gabriel Ellison-Scowcroft to think through what photographs 'are', methodological approaches to using photographs, and the specifics of Sinead's use of photographs in the context of her research into childhood and deindustrialization in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

You can find out more about the DéPOT project at www.deindustrialization.org

Music: "Never Give Up" by Ketsa. Used under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0; https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/summer-with-sound/never-give-up.

Today we meet with Naomi Petropoulos, a DePOT affiliate and PhD candidate at Queens University Belfast. Her work on the history of “The Original Derry Girls”– the workers of the women-dominated garment industry in Derry – led her to interview both her Grandmother and Mother in-law who had worked at the factories. We discuss the experience of interviewing family, both from the perspective of being a researcher and oral historian, but also as a granddaughter and daughter-in-law.

Find out more about DePOT here

Music: "Never Give Up" by Ketsa. Used under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0; https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/summer-with-sound/never-give-up.