Voices from the Periphery is a three-year long research project that aims to examine the role of the media as a key agent in the public construction of post-industrial marginalisation.
The project, jointly funded by the DFG and AHRC, explores feelings of belonging and identity within post-industrial communities in the North of England and Eastern Germany and the representation of these communities in media and popular culture.
The broad aim is to explore the extent of experienced or perceived marginalisation within these communities and how these experiences are linked to periods of significant economic decline and social change.
At the centre of the project are six post-industrial cities, each of which has experienced the rise and fall of industrial work: Redcar, Rotherham and Middlesbrough in the North East of England, and Weißwasser, Lauchhammer and Eisenhüttenstadt in East Germany. The UK-based case studies have been chosen due to their history of steel and coalmining and their relative deprivation compared to surrounding areas.
Using a systematic research design informed by critical discourse analysis and social inequality research, the project contrasts an elite-centred view with a grassroots perspective on the marginalization of post-industrial milieus.
Alongside established methods in media studies and sociology, the project uses innovative tools – such as storytelling salons – to capture the everyday experiences of groups frequently marginalised in media and political discourse.
Exploration of identity
The construction and contestation of discourses problematizing post-industrial communities have been rarely explored in contemporary research, with few isolated case studies focusing on media framings of industrial decline. Particularly, economically marginalised milieus and their representations in the media demand further attention.
This research project addresses this gap through meaningful exploration of the internal perspectives, counter-narratives and collective identity formation(s) of marginalised working-class groups – and their responses to external, top-down attempts to impose identities on them.
It explores the modes of subjectification of residents of post-industrial communities against dominant mass-mediated narratives in a cross-national comparison.
To address these narratives, the project follows a multifaceted approach: it combines research on journalistic practice (via interviews), with newspaper analysis of coverage of “marginalised” communities (via Critical Discourse Analysis) and compares these representations with statements by those living in the areas concerned (via “Storytelling Cafes", discussion groups, experience diaries and interviews).
A bottom-up approach
Rather than taking dominant media discourses at face-value, this project actively considers the voices of those often marginalised in political debate and media representations. Following a bottom-up approach, it asks for their experiences and memories to counter dominant narratives.
The overall aim for this project is to explore the extent of experienced or perceived marginalisation within deindustrialised communities – and how these experiences are linked to periods of significant economic and social change.
As such, the project adds nuance to dominant media practices and grounds these in the lived experiences of marginalised communities, impacting the understanding and representations of economically disadvantaged groups in deindustrialised areas – on a UK level and through the wider lens of an international comparison.
International collaboration
This is a collaborative project between three universities – BU, the University of Greifswald (Germany) and the University of Stirling (Scotland).
The project lead is split between members of staff at Bournemouth University and the University of Greifswald. The UK and German team each lead on the national case studies – the North East of England and regions in the former German Democratic Republic respectively – and combine findings from these into an international comparison.
For more information, please visit the VOICES project website