The Tale of Two Factories

: Work, Transformation & Heritage.

Abstract

This thesis is comprised of two case studies, the former Longbridge plant in south Birmingham and the Mirafiori plant in south Turin. Through an interlinked, qualitative, historical approach the thesis covers the time period from the turn of the twentieth century up until 2023. These two similarly sized cities in central Western capitalist economies have been associated with industry and the factory for most of the twentieth century – notably the automotive industry. At their peak, the two factories were largescale employers involved in the mass production of cars. Both, to varying degrees, followed the Fordist model of production, exerting influence in the lives of their employees and loomed over the areas’ economy, work, housing and social relations. Longbridge is no more, demolished and replaced with a shopping centre and housing. Mirafiori still operates, with less than eighty percent of the workforce it had during its Fordist peak, large parts of the factory sit unused as it is now a small part of a global operation.
Transformation of work and deindustrialisation sweeps away all that came before it, this thesis examines what is at stake in these ongoing processes of change and obscuration. This is a contribution to the understanding of these processes and their impact. The thesis blends a micro-macro approach, moving between and beyond local, regional and national boundaries, the intertwined processes in local and global interacting with each other. Research and fieldwork have been conducted in both Birmingham and Turin, these have taken the form of oral history interviews, walking as method and industrial heritage. This has been complimented with archival research in both cities, alongside museums and secondary literature.

Date of Award	30 Sept 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bristol
Supervisor	John M Foot (Supervisor), Ruth S Glynn (Supervisor) & Harry Pitts (Supervisor)