Understanding the Deindustrial Body: The Legacies of Occupational Injuries and Disease in the Former Kent Coalfield

The deindustrial body pulls together narratives of ill-health, community and working life offering a framework to explore deindustrialisation. It draws on Sherry Linkon's (2018) concept of the 'half-life of deindustrialisation' taking account of the duality between past, present and future evident in narratives of former Kent miners (and their families). The body is central to the study of deindustrialisation, presenting work as shaping male identity and subsequently collective identity dictating the moral order of the surrounding communities. Through a dialogue of over thirty interviews, contextualised within over twenty-four months of ethnographic data, this thesis traces the embodied identity of the miner as he transitions from industrial to deindustrialisation. This is assessed through the masculine bravado, pedagogics and habits of industry to the contemporary experiences of ill-health and illness. The repercussions of industry closure are explored with reference to individual and collective bodily experiences as portrayed through accounts of memory, ruination and normalisation of ill-health. It reveals accounts from a neglected coalfield that has much to add to our understanding of deindustrialisation. Repercussions of industry closure remain present in contemporary society, influencing individual and collective experiences that in turn shape the

body of work identity and post-industrial livelihood.